Sources said the alliance name, INDIA, was proposed by Trinamool’s Mamata Banerjee and was chosen after discussions on a dozen other names. After Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge announced the alliance at a joint press conference, she said in her speech: “NDA, BJP, can you challenge INDIA? Catch us, if you can.”
States-wise alliances
The leaders will now get down to the real task of building structures by starting seat-sharing talks. A coordination committee will be formed with one or more coordinators. The leaders felt it would be pragmatic to negotiate states-wise alliances rather than attempting a ‘nationwide seat-sharing pact’, it is learnt. States-wise tie-ups could be smooth in states where Congress and allies have existing alliances, but it may not be so in states where some of these parties have turf rivalries. “While we would strive for maximum possible united Opposition candidates against BJP/NDA nominees, in reality our alliance would work effectively states-wise if a realistic seat-sharing is done. Maybe in some states, fights among us are inevitable but that can also prevent BJP from emerging as the sole challenger to the main Opposition party in those states,” a leader told ET. A total of 11 states are currently ruled by parties out of the 26 present in the meeting.
Alternative Vision, Not CMP
The leaders felt a committee should come out with a national alternative vision soon, instead of a common minimum programme. Many felt that the vision should be presented to people before elections and that the idea of CMP was more about governance. INDIA will project a collective leadership vision as they realise the difficulty in projecting one among them as alliance face.
Joint outings
The leaders will form a secretariat to plan joint rallies and share stages regularly to showcase INDIA. They are planning a joint visit to Manipur.
Pawar-play
NCP chief Sharad Pawar demonstrated during the internal meeting his resolve to stand firm against BJP despite defection in his Maharashtra unit. Participants said, in his speech, Pawar referred to how Praful Patel, who had accompanied him to the Patna meeting, crossed over to the BJP side as he could not withstand the “ED pressure”. He assured that only ED/CBI-warry MLAs had defected and the party-support base was intact. MVA could outbeat BJP front in the state despite defections of NCP and Shiv Sena MLAs, he said. As a message, Pawar and Uddhav Thackery proposed that next the INDIA meeting should happen in Mumbai and all agreed.
Collective Resolve
‘Collective Resolve’ includes pledge “to safeguard the idea of India as enshrined in the Constitution”, a determination to combat and confront “assault on constitutional rights of democratically elected state governments”, to confront the ‘grave economic crisis’, to oppose the ‘reckless sale’ of nation’s wealth to ‘favoured friends’, to defeat the ‘hatred and violence being manufactured against minorities’, to stop ‘rising crimes against women, Dalits, Adivasis and Kashmiri Pandits’, to fight the ‘systemic conspiracy by BJP to target, persecute and suppress our fellow Indians’ and the polarisation plank.
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