Twenty-six political parties have decided to come together under the name Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). The announcement was made by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge. While making the announcement, he said, “Earlier we worked with UPA (United Progressive Alliance). Now with all 26 parties, a new name is given that is Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).” The opposition alliance also said that INDIA will next meet in Mumbai, where an eleven-member co-ordination committee will be set up soon. Congress President Mallukarjan Kharge said that a secretariat will be set up for campaign management in New Delhi.
Twenty-six political parties participated in the Opposition meeting that took place in Bengaluru on July 17 and 18. The list of leaders included seven Chief Ministers – West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee, Tamil Nadu’s MK Stalin, Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab’s Bhagwant Mann, Bihar’s Nitish Kumar, Jharkhand’s Hemant Soren and Karnataka’s Siddaramaiah. More than 50 leaders of political parties were also present in Bengaluru including Congress’ Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, NCP’s Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Uddhav Thackeray, CPI(M) Sitaram Yechury, National Congress’ Omar Abdullah among others. This is the second opposition conclave after the Patna meeting on June 23. The aim is to forge an alliance to take on the BJP-led NDA ahead of the 2024 elections.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar skipped the first day of the meeting in light of Ajit Pawar and his camp of MLAs paying a ‘surprise visit’ to the senior leader to seek his guidance on keeping the party united. Earlier today, Sharad Pawar arrived in Bengaluru to attend the meeting and was received by state Ministers Laxmi Hebbalkar and MB Patil.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge had earlier in the day hit out at the BJP for not respecting their allies and using their votes to come to power. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is also concurrently holding a meeting in New Delhi on July 18.
“The BJP did not get 303 seats by itself. It used the votes of its allies and came to power and then discarded them. The BJP president and their leaders are running from state to state to patch up with their old allies. They are scared that the unity they see here will result in their defeat next year.”
He also said the intent of the alliance was not to come to power in 2024 but to protect India’s democracy. “Every institution is being turned into a weapon against the opposition. Our intention in this meeting is not to gain power for ourselves. It is to protect democracy, secularism and social justice. Let us resolve to take India back to the path of progress, welfare and true democracy,” Kharge said.
The opposition alliance led by the Congress party, namely the United Progressive Alliance, met with defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The UPA won 91 seats alone in the 2019 elections with Congress claiming 52 of those. The UPA was in power from 2004- 2014. The fundamental difference between UPA and INDIA is that the UPA was led by the Congress, while INDIA has no clear leader. Senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi spearheaded the UPA as its chairperson from 2004 to 2014.