Group of 26 Oppn parties join hands under banner of ‘INDIA’

The parties announced that their grouping will be called INDIA, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, to take on the BJP-led NDA.

Bengaluru Twenty-six Opposition parties, which won 134 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and secured a 35% vote share, announced a pre-poll coalition at a mega meeting in Bengaluru on Tuesday, marking the first time in a generation that disparate political outfits have come together on the national stage to take on the incumbent government.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge speaks at a press conference after the opposition parties' meet, in Bengaluru on Tuesday.(PTI)

The parties announced that their grouping will be called INDIA, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which rallied 38 parties together in a separate meeting in New Delhi.

“Let us challenge the NDA. The NDA cannot challenge INDIA. Is there anyone who can challenge INDIA?” West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress, a key constituent of the new alliance, said.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge announced the creation of an 11-member coordination committee and said the constituents of the panel will be declared at the next meeting of the alliance in Mumbai. The parties will also set up a secretariat for campaign management in Delhi, and push for an intense campaign on key issues across states. But thorny issues such as seat-sharing and the leadership of the coalition are yet to be discussed threadbare, and Kharge indicated that these may be taken up in Mumbai.

“In the interest of people of country, we came together, discussed various points and with one voice, supported the resolution. Our alliance will be called Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance,” he added.

The announcement, which sets up an Alliance vs Alliance battle, is a significant moment in Indian politics in the run up to the 2024 general elections, where the Opposition will take on the dominant BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is looking for a third consecutive term. Though the grassroots modalities of the alliance will need to be worked out, especially on seat-sharing in states such as West Bengal, Delhi and Punjab, it marks the successful culmination of efforts by several parties that overcame ideological, geographical and electoral contradictions to forge a common platform on a scale not seen since the late 1980s.

“Earlier, we were UPA and now all the 26 parties have given a name to the Opposition and that is – Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). Everybody has agreed upon this, and the resolution for the name was passed unanimously,” Kharge said.

The meeting also saw the unfolding of scenes of bonhomie among opposition members who often don’t see eye-to-eye on major issues, such as the AAP and Congress or Trinamool and CPI(M).The alliance comprises three national parties, 17 state parties and six unrecognised parties. Nineteen of the 26 outfits have less than three seats in the Lok Sabha; and 11 have none (Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party not considered due to internal disputes).

Setting the stage, Opposition leaders said their fight will be to save the country, its democracy, the Constitution and for the people reeling under inflation, unemployment and other issues.

A resolution of the meeting said, “as a first step” these parties will implement the caste census.

“We have come together to defeat the hatred and violence being manufactured against minorities; stop the rising crimes against women, Dalits, Adivasis and Kashmiri Pandits; demand a fair hearing for all socially, educationally and economically backward communities; and, as a first step, implement the Caste Census,” the resolution said.

The joint resolution highlighted the coalition’s core principles —safeguard the idea of India and present an alternative political, social and economic agenda.

This is the first time a pre-poll alliance comprising the Congress, AAP, Trinamool Congress and Left parties has been formed at the national level. The previous iteration of the anti-BJP alliance, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), came into existence after the 2004 general elections.

“We are patriotic. We are the people, for the farmers, for the youth, we want good economy,” Banerjeee said. “All campaigns, all programmes will be held under the banner of INDIA We have to save India from the current disaster. The BJP is trying to sell off the country. If any party tries to work or oppose them, they unleash agencies. Today, we have politically applied Section 420 (IPC, cheating) on them,” she added.

Five Opposition leaders addressed the press conference after the meeting, including Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who skipped the presser at Patna after a disagreement over a controversial ordinance around the control of the bureaucracy in Delhi. This time, Kejriwal backed the Opposition and criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Nine years ago, Modi came to power. In these nine years, he had opportunity to develop the country. But not a single sector has developed. Railways and economy are in poor state. Modi sold off airports, airlines. Everyone is unhappy,” he said.

The Delhi CM said the Opposition parties gathered in Bengaluru not for themselves but “with a dream of a new India.”

Former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray described the meeting as one against tyranny. “The country is our family. Our fight is against the BJP government’s policies and tyranny. Our independence is under threat,” Thackeray said.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the decisions were taken smoothly and underlined that the fight was against “the BJP’s ideology and their thought process”.

“The country’s wealth lies with a few chosen people. The country’s voice is being throttled. It will be INDIA vs Modi now. We will prepare action plan and decide what we are going to do,” Rahul Gandhi said.

The joint resolution spoke about the Opposition’s “steadfast resolve to safeguard the idea of India as enshrined in the Constitution.”

“We are at a most crucial juncture in our nation’s history. The foundational pillars of the Indian Constitution – secular democracy, economic sovereignty, social justice and federalism – are being methodically and menacingly undermined,” it said.

The resolution promised “to present to the nation an alternative political, social and economic agenda” and a style of governance that is “more consultative, democratic and participative”.

It attacked the Modi government for the “systemic conspiracy to target, persecute and suppress our fellow Indians”.

“Their poisonous campaign of hate has led to vicious violence against all those opposed to the ruling party and its divisive ideology. These attacks are not only violating constitutional rights and freedoms but also eroding the basic values upon which the Republic of India is founded …the repeated attempts by the BJP to vitiate public discourse by reinventing and rewriting Indian history are an affront to social harmony,” it added.

The resolution also expressed grave concern at the Manipur situation and said, “The silence of the Prime Minister is shocking and unprecedented. There is an urgent need to bring Manipur back on the path of peace and reconciliation.”

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took a dig at the grouping, and said the British had named the country India and the fight should be to free the nation from “colonial legacies”.

“Our civilisational conflict is pivoted around India and Bharat. The British named our country as India. We must strive to free ourselves from colonial legacies,” Sarma said on Twitter.