Ballot Battle 2024: Opposition forges INDIA to take on NDA

Shubhadeep Choudhury

New Delhi, July 18

Twenty-six opposition parties working on stitching up a coalition to challenge the Narendra Modi-led BJP in the next year’s Lok Sabha polls today reached a major milestone when they agreed upon a new name for the front — INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance).

“The name has been approved by all participants. This is our first major achievement,” said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, while adding “there is a lot of meaning to this name”.

The Bengaluru meet, which followed the first such meeting of Opposition parties held in Patna last month, also saw the participants agree upon setting up an 11-member coordination committee to manage the activities of the alliance.

Will fight elections unitedly

Our coalition will be called the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA)… We’ll fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections unitedly. Our intention is not to gain power for ourselves. Mallikarjun Kharge, Cong chief

The next meeting of the alliance partners would be held in Mumbai, Kharge said, adding the names of the members of the coordination committee would be announced there. The date of the meeting would be announced shortly, he said. The Congress president, who played host at the Bengaluru meeting, said a secretariat would be set up in Delhi to manage the election campaign of the new alliance. Committees would also be set up to look after specific issues, he said. Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin (DMK), West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (TMC), Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal (AAP), Bihar CM Nitish Kumar (JD-U), Punjab CM Bhagwant Singh Mann (AAP) were among those who took part in the meeting.

Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, NCP leader Sharad Pawar, RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav were also present. Kharge said while leaders of 16 parties had taken part in the Patna meeting, the number rose to 26 in Bengaluru.

Acknowledging that some of the participants were traditional rivals in states under their respective areas of influence, Kharge said: “We have some differences in each state politically, but we have kept these problems behind, not in the front.” “The BJP government is out to destroy democracy and Constitution,” Kharge said and claimed they had come together in the interest of the country and not for power.

He said the Opposition’s efforts for unity had made Prime Minister Narendra Modi “nervous”, prompting the BJP to try to revive the NDA. “Modi-ji is trying to stitch together parties that had splintered into multiple groups. This shows how desperate he is,” said Kharge. Asked about the face of the alliance, Kharge did not give a direct answer and said the coordination committee and a convener would also be named in Mumbai. Calling it a fight “between INDIA and PM Modi”, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the idea of India was facing threat from the BJP. Interestingly, Mamata Banerjee, who also addressed the press conference, referred to Rahul as “our favourite Rahul Gandhi”, indicating she was ready to bury her differences with the Congress, at least for now.

‘NDA vs INDIA’ — What’s in a name

• 26 parties agreed on naming coalition ‘INDIA’ (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance), saying it was an ‘NDA vs INDIA’ fight
• While ‘INDIA’ first came up at informal dinner on Monday, sources said it took time to decide on full nomenclature
• Original suggestion was to use word ‘democratic’, but it was replaced with ‘developmental’ as it sounded similar to National Democratic Alliance