On Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, censured Congress party leaders and others for celebrating the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) loss in the West Bengal Assembly election. It marked the second time in two days that the senior Congress leader appeared to side with outgoing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee — the first being on Monday during counting of votes, when Gandhi indicated agreement with the Trinamool supremo’s charge that the “BJP looted more than 100 seats”. In the 2026 Assembly election, the BJP won 207 seats while the TMC won 80. This came weeks after Gandhi, during his party’s Assembly election campaign in Bengal, had called Banerjee “corrupt” and blamed her for giving BJP a foothold in West Bengal. We explain what prompted Gandhi’s rebuke, and the tensions that have brewed within the INDIA bloc — especially between the Congress and the TMC in Bengal, and even with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu .…