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04-09-2023
Bureau Report + Agencies
NEW DELHI: More than two dozen opposition parties in India have decided to jointly contest the 2024 national elections against Prime Minister Narendra Modi as they aim to prevent the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) third straight victory.
The 28-party bloc, called the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), on Friday announced that it will work out seat-sharing arrangements in different states to avoid splitting votes in favor of Modi’s party.
“We, the INDIA parties, hereby resolve to contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections together as far as possible,” a statement from the bloc read.
“Seat-sharing arrangements in different states will be initiated immediately and concluded at the earliest in a collaborative spirit of give-and-take.”
India’s national elections are scheduled to be held around May.
Indian National Congress party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi joined other key opposition leaders including Sharad Pawar, Arvind Kejriwal, Sitaram Yechury and Lalu Prasad Yadav at a two-day meeting in Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital.
Their goal was to set up a direct fight by putting one contestant against a BJP candidate in each voting district.
The opposition parties formed the alliance in June and are challenging Modi’s party on its economic record, rising unemployment and a host of other domestic problems, including rising anti-Muslim sentiment.
“We will be travelling to different locations to spread the word. The meetings will ensure that those at the centre will lose for sure. It will also ensure the freedom of media as well. We will stand together,” Nitish Kumar, chief minister of Bihar state, said at a news conference after the two-day meeting, according to The Indian Express newspaper.
Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress party president, said all segments of society, including public intellectuals and journalists, had been at the receiving end of the BJP’s “authoritarian misrule”.
“The communal poison that the BJP and RSS have spread over the last nine years is now seen in hate crimes against innocent train passengers and against innocent school children,” he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
