More than two dozen opposition parties have come together to form an alliance called “INDIA” to fight against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the upcoming national elections.
As many as 26 parties, led by the main opposition party Indian National Congress, met in the southern city of Bengaluru for a two-day meeting and, after much deliberation, declared their alliance on Tuesday.
The name is an acronym of Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance.
“We have come together and discussed various points. With one voice, people supported the resolution adopted today. Our alliance will be called Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance," Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said.
Seven Chief Ministers – Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal, Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi, Bhagwant Mann of Punjab, Hemant Soren of Jharkhand, Siddaramaiah of Karnataka, MK Stalin of Tamil Nadu, and Nitish Kumar of Bihar – attended the meeting.
Ms Banerjee, whose Trinamool Congress Party won with huge margins, defeating the BJP in West Bengal local elections earlier this month, said that INDIA will win against the BJP in the elections scheduled next year.
"BJP, can you challenge INDIA? 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…INDIA will win, our country will win and BJP will lose,” Ms Banerjee said, referring to the lowest stratum of India's controversial caste system, Dalits.
Mr Stalin said the alliance was committed to protecting the nation's pluralistic values from the clutches of divisive politics.
The opposition parties accuse Mr Modi’s government of damaging India’s secular credentials by resorting to religious and divisive politics, crushing dissent and targeting political opponents.
“History has proven that authoritarians hiding behind the mask of nationalism will ultimately fall,” Mr Stalin said in a tweet.
The alliance will constitute an 11-member co-ordination committee to take up the complex issue of allocating seats for the coalition contesting the BJP.
However, Mr Modi slammed the alliance, calling it a grouping of “corruption, self-interest and promotion of dynasty politics”.
“When an alliance is formed due to compulsion of power, when an alliance is with the intention of corruption, when an alliance is based on dynastic politics, when an alliance is formed keeping in mind casteism and regionalism, then that alliance is very harmful to the country," Mr Modi said.
Mr Modi was addressing a gathering of 38 parties that are in coalition with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government, in the capital Delhi.
