NEW DELHI: The 26-member opposition bloc gathered in Bengaluru to give shape to the anti-BJP coalition named itself INDIA – standing for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance – to set the stage for a Lok Sabha battle next year that couldbe as much about acronyms as acrimony.
“NDA, can you challenge INDIA?” Bengal CM and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said at a joint presser on Tuesday to wrap up the two-day unity conclave, the second after the June 23 Patna meeting hosted by Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the third meeting of INDIA would be held in Mumbai, and the date would be announced soon.
The Bengaluru conclave also decided to set up an 11member coordination committee to take a call on potentially thorny issues such as the alliance leadership, its PM candidate and the nomination of a convener. Sources said the names of Sonia, Mamata, Nitish and Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin were discussed to head INDIA. A common secretariat will be established in Delhi for poll campaign management.
By evening, there were different versions of how the name ‘INDIA’ for the alliance came about. A source credited Mamata with suggesting the acronym to replace the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), of which she was once a part. But Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said the coalition’s name was Rahul Gandhi’s coinage.
There were apparently multiple suggestions about what each letter of INDIA should denote. “Democratic”, it was said, but rejected because NDA stands for National Democratic Alliance. “Developmental” then made the cut. In public, the bonhomie among the leaders of the 26 parties was hard to miss. Mamata addressed Rahul as “our favourite”. The disqualified Wayanad MP was spotted offering water to a coughing Sharad Pawar, the NCP chief, and later helping Kharge hold up the edges of his dhoti. Mamata was also seen in animated conversation with Sonia.
At the presser, Kharge took a jibe at the NDA meeting of 38 parties in New Delhi, saying PM Modi wa s trying to get all “tukde (factions)” together. Mamata said that the Centre’s only job was to allegedly buy and sell governments. “We love our motherland, we are the patriotic people of the country, we are for farmers, Dalits, we are for the country, for the world.”
Delhi chief minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said Prime Minister Modi had made a “comp lete mess of almost every sector in his10-year stint”.
Rahul said INDIA’s fight was against BJP and PM Modi’s ideology, while former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray retorted to PM Modi’s “dynasty” jibe, saying, “Some people are saying that we are fighting to save our families. Yes, the country is our family, and we are fighting together to save it.”
“People are feeling afraid as to what will happen, we want to say to them that there was a movie ‘Main Hoon Na’, so they should notworry, ‘Hum hain na’,” Thackeray said.
Nitish and RJD chief Lalu Prasad skipped the press briefing. The opposition leaders issued a joint statement pledging to “present to the nation an alternative political, social and economic agenda”.
The statement slams BJP on its handling of various issues, ranging from the Manipur conflict to its alleged misuse of central agencies. “We express our grave concern over the humanitarian tragedy that has destroyed Manipur. The silence of the Prime Minister is shocking and unprecedented.”
The statement accuses the BJP-led government at the Centre of trying to “weaken the federal structure of our polity”, besides “targeting , persecuting and suppressing” people and running a “poisonous campaign of hate”.
On the alternative presented by INDIA, the statement says the alliance would transform governance in the country by ado pting a more “consultative, democratic and participative” approach.