In 2018, following the fractured mandate in Karnataka, Congress and the Janata Dal (United) had joined hands to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had emerged as the single largest party, out of power.

After chaotic negotiations between the two parties, the Congress accepted JD(S)‘s demand to let H D Kumaraswamy be the Chief Minister of the state. His swearing in ceremony, which took place on 23 May 2018, was turned by the Congress into a show of strength and unity by inviting all major opposition leader.

Following Kumaraswamy’s swearing-in, all the leaders assembled on the stage and posed for a photo which many termed as “iconic”. From the stage, these leaders, including Bahujan Samaj Party’s Mayawati, Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, wowed to join hands to defeat the BJP.

On 23 May 2019, exactly a year after this happened, the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on the road to an absolute majority at the Centre. At the time of writing this report, the BJP was leading in at leats 300 seats. The National Democratic Alliance has a lead on at least 345 seats across the country.

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance was leading on 92 seats while the others, including the SP-BSP gathbandhan in UP, was ahead in 102 seats.