INDIA bloc to initiate seat-sharing arrangements, coordinate campaigns

The bloc will coordinate communications and media strategies and campaigns with the theme “Judega Bharat, Jiteega India [India will unite and win]”

The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) constituents on Friday resolved to contest the 2024 national elections together “as far as possible” and said seat-sharing arrangements in states will be initiated immediately and concluded at the earliest in a “collaborative spirit of give-and-take”.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge with party leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. (ANI)

In a resolution passed at the grouping’s third meeting in Mumbai, the INDIA bloc also said they will organise public rallies at the earliest in different parts of the country on issues of public concern and importance. The bloc will coordinate communications and media strategies and campaigns with the theme “Judega Bharat, Jiteega India [India will unite, win]” in different languages.

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Leaders from 28 opposition parties gathered in Mumbai on Thursday to hammer out strategies for poll preparations for the first time hours after the government announced a surprise special session of Parliament in September.

HT on Friday reported chief ministers Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar asked the alliance leaders to “take quick decisions”. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal suggested that seat-sharing talks must start at the state level. Several leaders in the bloc also cautioned against early general elections otherwise due in April-May 2024.

Banerjee suggested that the alliance should identify an agenda comprising five or six issues and start the poll campaign by announcing those issues from Rajghat in Delhi on October 2, HT reported.

The INDIA bloc’s earlier meetings in Patna and Bengaluru in June and July largely focused on bringing like-minded parties on a common platform and identifying similar ideological positions. The Mumbai meeting was devoted to election planning.

The Mumbai deliberations are the group’s first effort at moving beyond symbolism to resolve thorny substantive issues of leadership and political strategy.