Opposition bloc 'INDIA' to begin its two day meeting in Mumbai today
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The united Opposition bloc, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), will begin its two-day meeting in Mumbai on Thursday. At the meeting, its third since it started its parleys in Patna two months ago, the bloc will pick members of an 11-member central coordination committee and the location for its secretariat in the national capital. It will also announce the names of its chairperson and convenor and release a logo of the grouping.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge will be the frontrunner for the chairperson’s position, if Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance (UPA), declines to take that role, given her poor health. And Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar could be picked as convenor. The coalition will announce the decisions on Friday afternoon.
Besides a coordination committee, the bloc could also constitute separate committees to forge synergy in its social media efforts, future agenda, and seat sharing. For now it hopes to make inflation and “China’s occupation of Indian territories” two of the themes of its campaign. It has already claimed credit for pushing the government to announce a Rs 200 subsidy on each cooking gas cylinder.
In an agenda-setting move, the Congress leadership on Wednesday — a day before the meeting — launched the Karnataka government's Gruha Lakshmi scheme in Mysuru, pledging to deposit Rs 2,000 every month in the bank accounts of nearly 13 million women heads of household in the state. The event, attended among others by Kharge, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, was held to mark 100 days of the Congress government in the state and the festival of Rakshabandhan.
The INDIA bloc’s first meeting in Patna on June 23, which 15 parties attended, had coincided with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the US Congress in Washington DC. While its second meeting, attended by 26 parties, was held in Bengaluru on July 18, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) organised a 38-party meeting of the dormant National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This time, the Maharashtra NDA, a 10-party alliance, has also decided to hold its two-day meeting on Thursday and Friday.
On Wednesday, in a series of tweets, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati alleged the INDIA bloc and NDA were two sides of the same coin, as both pursued anti-poor policies. She said her party would not have a truck with either. In Mumbai, Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar said Mayawati was speculated to be with the BJP. "I am not saying that is true, but there needs to be clarity," he said.
Congress leader Ashok Chavan said two more parties would join the INDIA alliance in Mumbai, bringing the number of members to 28. He said the constituents of INDIA together received 234 million votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, against the BJP’s 229 million. But the Opposition still lost as it was divided; that would not be the case in 2024, he said.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), also a bloc constituent, rejected its spokesperson's claim that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal could be INDIA’s prime ministerial candidate.
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