Road To 2019: Can Opposition Take On PM Modi Without Congress?

The BJP just won a historic poll in the Northeast over the weekend, leading to a massive political churning. Here's how. For starters: the BJP's winning momentum is back. They lost some key bye elections recently, and Gujarat was uncomfortably close, but this huge win in the northeast, where they had zero presence earlier, has galvanised the party cadre ahead of crucial state polls this year and next year's general election. Here's the other big one: bitter rivals, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have decided to join hands for two crucial bypolls in Uttar Pradesh later this month. They're coming together after 23 years, in what could be a game changing move for 2019. And here's more: after the Congress' humiliating performance in the northeast, Mamata Banerjee has called them out for basically taking ill-advised political calls. She says she offered Rahul Gandhi an alliance in Tripura, he turned it down. Meanwhile in Telagana, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has floated the idea of a non-Congress, non-BJP Third Front and he says Mamata Banerjee is among those supporting him. So the 2019 election is basically going to look like this: Narendra Modi vs the rest. The question is, how will the rest come together? Can they do it without the Congress? Is the Congress a liability or an asset? Do the elections in the northeast really indicate what may happen or will will other state polls this year hold the key?