Group of 26 Oppn parties joins hands under banner of 'INDIA'

Twenty-six Opposition parties, which won 134 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and secured a 35% vote share, announced a pre-poll coalition at a mega meeting in Bengaluru on Tuesday, marking the first time in a generation that disparate political outfits have come together on the national stage to take on the incumbent government.

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BENGALURU: The parties announced that their grouping will be called INDIA, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which rallied 38 parties together in a separate meeting in New Delhi.

“Let us challenge the NDA. The NDA cannot challenge INDIA. Is there anyone who can challenge INDIA?” West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress, a key constituent of the new alliance, said.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge announced the creation of an 11-member coordination committee and said the constituents of the panel will be declared at the next meeting of the alliance in Mumbai. The parties will also set up a secretariat for campaign management in Delhi, and push for an intense campaign on key issues across states. But thorny issues such as seat-sharing and the leadership of the coalition are yet to be discussed threadbare, and Kharge indicated that these may be taken up in Mumbai.

“In the interest of people of country, we came together, discussed various points and with one voice, supported the resolution. Our alliance will be called Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance,” he added.