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'PM Modi is India but not India..': Sanjay Raut's jab after Oppn's I.N.D.I.A reveal
Opposition parties on Tuesday announced that their grouping will be called INDIA, Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, to take on the BJP-led NDA.
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) leader Sanjay Raut attacking those against the new Opposition alliance name INDIA, a day after the Opposition parties met in Bengaluru to take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2024 national elections, said on Wednesday that those creating a controversy over the name were not patriots.
Saying that supporters of Narendra Modi used to say that PM Modi is India, Raut said, “He is not India. Every citizen of the country is India.”
Questioning why people would have an issue with the name, Raut brought up how there were several parties with India's name in them, including the BJP.
Twenty-six Opposition parties, which won 134 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and secured a 35 per cent vote share, announced a pre-poll coalition at a Bengaluru meet on Tuesday, marking the first time in a generation that disparate political outfits came together on the national stage to take on the incumbent government.
He said, “Those who are creating a controversy [over the new alliance name INDIA] are not patriots. Otherwise why would they have an issue? Is there no other party with the India's name in it? Bharatiya Janata Party also has Bharat in it.”
Raut also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi used ‘Modi's India’ as a slogan and no one questioned that. He said, “What did Modi's India — the slogan that BJP used — mean? Listen to Modi jis speeches, he has often said, ‘Voting for BJP is voting for India’.”
The new Opposition alliance — INDIA
The Opposition parties on Tuesday announced that their grouping will be called INDIA, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, to take on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
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.
Uddhav Thackeray on PM Modi's ‘for the family’ jibe
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday retorted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ‘for the family’ jibe at the Opposition unity meeting, saying “Yes, the entire country is our family and we are fighting for it” - without naming PM Modi in his speech.
Earlier on Tuesday, PM Modi launched a scathing attack on the opposition meeting in Bengaluru saying that “their mantra is - of, by and for family”. "
Addressing the media after the mega opposition party meeting, Thackeray said, “There is a fear in people's minds about what will happen next... So we want to assure them that don't worry, we are here. Just one person or one party cannot be the country, all people are the country.”
