Today in Politics: After making some headway, will the Opposition get down to brass tacks?

All this to underline that though the INDIA alliance of Opposition parties had a decent few days in the week gone by as its constituents stitched up two major seat-sharing agreements — the Congress and AAP for Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, and Goa; and the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress for Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh — it is just the start of an uphill battle. The tougher part of the job awaits: developing synergy between their cadre, formulating a joint campaign strategy, figuring out and refining their political messaging, and ultimately ensuring that their votes transfer to each other.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav at the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Agra. (Express photo by Amit Mehra)

One thing to watch out for on Monday and in the coming week will be how the Congress, SP, and AAP proceed on this front. Just arriving at a seat-sharing deal minus a substantive vision or game plan can result in utter failure, as Lalmani Verma writes about the partnership between the Congress and the SP for the UP Assembly elections in 2017.

On PM Modi’s schedule

The Railways has been a key component of PM Modi’s development push. Last August, Modi launched the “redevelopment of 508 railway stations across India” under the Amrit Bharat Station scheme. That event was touted as the “biggest such ceremony in the infrastructure space”.

माननीय प्रधानमंत्री श्री @narendramodi जी 26 फरवरी को करने जा रहे हैं 41,000 करोड़ रुपये की 2,000 से अधिक रेल परियोजनाओं का शिलान्यास, उद्घाटन और राष्ट्र को समर्पण।#RailInfra4Bharat pic.twitter.com/gmhQpOrKIE

— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) February 24, 2024

At a virtual ceremony on Monday, Modi will lay the foundation of 550 Amrit Bharat stations to improve facilities at railway stations for Rs 40,000 crore. Modi will also lay the foundation stone of nearly 1,500 road overbridges and underbridges in different states.

The Amrit Bharat Station scheme was conceptualised after several iterations of the station redevelopment project did not see private-player participation. So far, 1,318 stations have been selected under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme based on proposals received from zonal railways and stations located in major cities and towns.

The Modi government also has a National Rail Plan 2030 in place to upgrade the Railways in critical areas and meet the growth in demand till 2050.