With more bad news coming in from the Bihar front, where JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar seemed on the verge of returning to the NDA fold, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge Thursday reached out to Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee to find a solution to the seat-sharing impasse in the state.

The Congress was left alarmed by Mamata’s announcement Wednesday that no INDIA seat-sharing talks were on in Bengal and that the TMC would contest the Lok Sabha polls alone in the state, while adding that the regional parties were holding together.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh told The Indian Express that Kharge got in touch with Mamata on Thursday to find a way forward. Refusing to share the details, Ramesh only said the objective of Mamata as well as the INDIA alliance was similar – “to defeat the BJP in Bengal and outside”.

Sources said Kharge also sent a letter to Mamata inviting her to join Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra at some point during its course through Bengal – a reaction to her claim that the Congress did not even inform her about it. Kharge, Rahul and everyone in the party would be “just delighted and privileged to have her as part of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, even if it is for a few minutes”, Ramesh told PTI, indicating the Congress’s desperation to get the TMC back on board.

However, indicating that the TMC will continue to play hard ball, the party on Thursday attacked Congress West Bengal unit chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury as singularly responsible for the failure of the seat-sharing talks. “Three reasons for the alliance not working in Bengal – Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury,” senior TMC leader Derek O’Brien told reporters.

Not helping matters, Chowdhury reacted by telling reporters: “He (O’Brien) is a foreigner, he knows a lot. You should ask him.”

In the midst of this, the INDIA bloc was reeling Thursday over the strong speculation that Nitish was ready to jump ship again.

The loss of the Bihar Chief Minister will be a major blow to the struggling coalition as it was in the state, under Nitish’s sponsorship, that the foundation for the INDIA alliance was laid on June 23 last year. Leaders of 15 Opposition parties had met at Nitish’s official residence in Patna and decided to form a coalition to take on the BJP.

Seven months hence, Nitish, who expected to play a key role in the Opposition front, has been giving signals of increasing disillusionment with the coalition, the most recent being his rejection of the offer to become the INDIA convener.

Barely a month ago, the JD(U), while returning Nitish as party president, projected him as the “sutradhar (main link)” of the Opposition alliance, underlining that few leaders in Indian politics were as “experienced” as him.

Congress sources admitted that his departure might be a fatal blow at a time when the Lok Sabha elections are just around the corner and when the euphoria around the INDIA bloc has already dissipated. Clearly, the logic that the INDIA parties could ensure one-on-one contests against the BJP in maximum seats through tie-ups was more about chemistry than arithmetic.

The biggest implication of Nitish’s exit would be in terms of optics, with the eight-time CM the most prominent face of the Hindi heartland in the INDIA kitty.

With Nitish gone, the BJP will find it easier to project the alliance as a ragtag anti-BJP, “unnatural” coalition, susceptible to crises and one that was withering away even before the electoral challenge.

That most INDIA parties are compelled by local interests despite ideological posturing against the BJP is a fact, which was also evident in its failure to even come up with a common programme.

The goals of the constituents too are divergent. The Congress’s primary interest is revival — “instead of survival”, as the leader of one party put it – while the TMC and AAP are looking to “expand”. This is why the TMC was left bristling over the Congress reluctance to share seats with it in Assam and Meghalaya, and the AAP felt snubbed by the party in Haryana and Gujarat. But for the Congress, it is important too to not contest so few seats that it risks losing the status of being the primary Opposition party.

The Congress recent Assembly losses, virtually wiping it out of the Hindi heartland, left INDIA bloc’s hopes riding largely on Bihar – and to some extent Uttar Pradesh. Nitish’s exit could also send those electoral calculations for a toss, although a section of the Congress leaders are hopeful RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav can compensate and stir up a sympathy vote.

Nitish’s exit would also send another crucial message: given the veteran’s long innings, an indication of which way the electoral wind is blowing.

Plus, at a time when the Opposition is seeking to make demand for a caste census its main poll plank, the loss of a leader who has shown it could be done – given Bihar’s recently released caste survey – would punch a big hole in that platform, even as the BJP is left standing taller.