New Delhi: With the 2024 Lok Sabha election results leaving no single party with a majority, the opposition INDIA alliance has said after a meeting of its leaders on Wednesday (June 5) that it will take “appropriate steps at the appropriate time” and that the mandate has been “in defence of the Constitution of India and against price rise, unemployment, and crony capitalism and also to save democracy.”
The NDA has 286 seats while the INDIA bloc has 201 seats, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) winning a total of 240 seats in the Lok Sabha. The Congress has won 99.
A total of 33 opposition leaders attended the INDIA bloc meeting at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence in New Delhi on Wednesday.
“The people’s mandate has given a befitting reply to the BJP and their politics of hate, corruption and deprivation. This is a political and moral defeat of Prime Minister [Narendra Modi],” said the joint statement issued by the parties at the end of the meeting, which Kharge read out.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
While there was speculation that the meeting would focus on whether the INDIA alliance would take a decision on staking a claim to form the government while looking to woo parties like the Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the joint statement only stated that “appropriate steps” will be taken at the appropriate time.
“The INDIA bloc will continue to fight against the fascist rule of the BJP led by Modi. We will take appropriate steps at the appropriate time to realise the people’s desire not to be ruled by the BJP [government]. This is our decision that whatever promises we have made to the people, we will keep it up.”
Meanwhile, in a meeting of NDA allies also held on Wednesday, the alliance announced that caretaker Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been unanimously elected as its leader.
The BJP, however, has to rely on its allies to form the government, with the JD(U) and the TDP, both former NDA allies who left the alliance only to rejoin ahead of the elections, holding the key.
Earlier on Wednesday, JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal scion Tejashwi Yadav, who is part of the INDIA bloc, were seen sitting next to each other aboard a flight to Delhi on Wednesday.
When asked why he was first seen sitting in a different seat and then sitting next to Nitish, Tejashwi said he had switched seats at Nitish’s invitation. And when asked what the two leaders had discussed, Tejashwi said they had exchanged greetings but cryptically asked mediapersons to “stay tuned to see what else had happened”.
Earlier in his opening remarks at the meeting, Kharge said that the 2024 mandate was one against Modi and that the INDIA alliance welcomes “all political parties” who have faith in the constitution.
“The public opinion of the 18th Lok Sabha elections is directly against [Modi]. The elections were fought on his name and face and the public has given a clear message to his leadership by not giving the BJP a majority. For Modi ji personally, this is not only a political defeat, but also a moral defeat. But we all know their habits.
“They will try their best to deny this public opinion. We hereby also convey that the INDIA alliance welcomes all political parties that have unwavering faith in the preamble of the Constitution of India and are committed to its objectives of economic, social and political justice,” he said.
The meeting was attended by Congress leaders Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, K.C. Venugopal, and Priyanka Gandhi; Sharad Pawar, who leads his faction of the NCP, and Supriya Sule, who is from the same party; the DMK’s M.K Stalin and T.R. Baalu; the Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav and Ramgopal Yadav; the TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee; Arvind Sawant and Sanjay Raut from the Shiv Sena (UBT); the RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav and Sanjay Yadav; the CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury; the CPI’s D. Raja; Champai Soren and Kalpana Soren from the JMM; Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha from the AAP; Dipankar Bhattacharya from the CPI(ML) Liberation; the National Conference’s Omar Abdullah; Sayyid Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal and P.K. Kunhalikutty of the IUML; the KC(M)’s Jose K. Mani; Thol Thirumavalavan and D. Ravikumar from the VCK; N.K. Premachandran from the RSP; M.H. Jawahirullah from the AIFB; and E.R Eswaran from the KMDK.
Read all of The Wire’s reporting on and analysis of the 2024 election results here.
