Bengaluru meet: INDIA secretariat in Delhi, next meeting in Mumbai
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday announced that the alliance of opposition parties that met in Bengaluru will be called Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (India) and a secretariat will be set up in Delhi for poll campaign management.
Kharge confirmed that the next meeting of the opposition parties will be held in Mumbai. The Congress chief also announced an 11-member coordination committee and the names of the members will be discussed at the Mumbai meeting.
“An 11-member coordination committee will be set up. We are going to meet again in Mumbai, there we will discuss the names of the members of the coordination committee. The date will be announced shortly,” Kharge said at the joint press conference after the meeting in Bengaluru.
Taking a jibe at the meeting of 38 members of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Kharge said we have not even heard the names of many parties.
“NDA is holding a meeting with 30 parties. I have not heard about so many parties in India. Earlier they didn’t hold any meetings but now they are meeting one by one (with NDA parties) PM Modi is now afraid of opposition parties. We have gathered here to save democracy and the Constitution,” Kharge said.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the meeting was productive and asserted that the fight is against the BJP’s ideology.
“We are defending the idea of our great country India. You can look into the history and tell that nobody has been able to defeat the idea of India,” Gandhi said.
“This fight is not between the BJP and the opposition. The country’s voice is being muzzled, this is the fight for that. That’s why we came up with this name – Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance – means INDIA,” he said.
In a joint declaration, the opposition parties alleged that the foundational pillars of the Constitution are being “methodically and menacingly undermined.” They expressed grave concern over the violence in Manipur saying the “silence of the Prime Minister is shocking and unprecedented.”
“There is an urgent need to bring Manipur back on the path of peace and reconciliation,” the declaration read.
The 26 opposition parties also pitched for conducting a caste census.
Reacting to the alliance name, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell head Amit Malviya said that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) had become “synonymous with corruption and regressive politics” and the new name won’t make the regrouping any more credible.
“In 2024, country will elect Prime Minister Modi, the leader… The future of our country is too precious to be risked with one of the self serving, corrupt, dynastic parties. It is apparent that they have come together to save their shrinking turfs, not serve the people (sic)” he said in a tweet.