New Delhi: Soon after they spectacularly stopped Narendra Modi’s juggernaut at the hustings and prevented the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from securing its third full majority government, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) leaders huddled to brainstorm over its future.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
Crucially, when they met on June 5 (Wednesday) many wondered whether the leaders had discussed about a possibility that may help INDIA muster the majority numbers with the help of independents and BJP’s allies N. Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar, who are known to switch sides in suitable circumstances. More importantly, the crucial question that stared at INDIA was its future as a parliamentary block, especially because many of the constituents came together under a common tent by transcending their regional differences, which may surface again.
The INDIA meeting, however, was an exercise in restraint, as could be seen in rather telling statement made by Mallikarjun Kharge. The Congress chief, on behalf of all the 33 INDIA leaders, said that the electoral outcome reflected a mandate against “BJP and their politics of hate, corruption and deprivation” — all issues that the opposition front had been raising — while terming the results as a “a political and moral defeat” of Modi.
Kharge said that people voted to defend the Constitution and against price rise, unemployment, and crony capitalism. He labelled the outgoing Modi government as a “fascist rule”, something that most INDIA constituents had hesitated in saying earlier, and pledged that the INDIA bloc will continue to fight it.
Putting speculations to rest, Kharge indicated that the INDIA bloc will be sitting in the opposition benches, and let Modi form a government with the help of its allies, by saying that the INDIA leaders will “take appropriate steps at the appropriate time to realise the people’s desire not to be ruled by the BJP government.”
Sources in the Congress told The Wire that although there were some parties like Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Shiv Sena (UBT), which wanted INDIA leaders to look for different possibilities, both Rahul Gandhi and Kharge believed that attempts to muster a majority may be a long shot, given that the alliance will need to add a minimum of 40 odd newly-elected MPs to deny the BJP another term at the Centre.
“Even if one of the NDA [National Democratic Alliance] allies like the JD(U) [Janata Dal(United)] or TDP [Telugu Desam Party] switched camps, the chances for the INDIA to get a majority was really low,” said a Congress functionary, who didn’t want to be named.
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However, the overwhelming sentiment in the meeting was to let the BJP’s “fake development agenda” fall flat over time, after which the INDIA bloc could emerge as a “credible and a moral alternative”.
Sources said that the parties that wanted INDIA to explore possibilities of forming a government were driven by the worry that the BJP could attempt breaking their parties in the future, engineer defections in their ranks, and destabilise their governments with the help of central agencies.
Yet, the INDIA leaders eventually reached a consensus that they should play the “role of a constructive and a united opposition” in the days to come, and prevent the Modi government from taking policy and legislative decisions unilaterally.
Dipankar Bhattacharya, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (ML-Liberation) that will be sending two MPs to the Lok Sabha after a gap of 35 years told The Wire, “We decided to amplify the issues that we have been raising, those related to livelihood issues of different sections of people and those of democratic backsliding and an unprecedented attack on the Constitution.”
“The INDIA bloc now needs to acquire greater dynamism where all of us could function as a solid parliamentary block and complement our parliamentary unity with a greater agitational thrust on the ground,” Bhattacharya added.
Further, he said that the INDIA bloc was no more merely a loose umbrella of political parties but it has emerged as “a movement” of political forces, civil society groups, digital warriors to uphold India’s Constitutional and democratic values.
Bhattacharya underlined that the INDIA parties decided that they were open to the possibility of a post-poll alliance with different parties if and when a conducive situation arises, but not at the moment.
“The INDIA bloc’s biggest task is now to grow in the political imagination of struggling people of India,” Bhattacharya told The Wire, adding that although the regional differences between many of the INDIA constituents remain, all Opposition parties could still develop a broad agreement over various issues to keep the Opposition alliance up and running.
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As Modi will be sworn in on Sunday evening, the INDIA parties appear to be gearing up for challenging its dominance in the parliament and on the ground. After two terms where he enjoyed irrefutable power, Modi is up against a formidable Opposition force. With assembly elections in Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Delhi, Haryana, and Bihar in the next two years, the INDIA bloc has a lot to agree upon than clash over their disagreements.
The Lok Sabha elections, once again, showed that the road to Delhi goes through states, and the INDIA parties have taken note of it, as was mirrored by Kharge’s “appropriate steps at the appropriate time” remark. More crucially, the Opposition has respectable numbers to prevent any attempt by the Modi government from running roughshod over the parliamentary system.
By describing the Modi government as a “fascist rule”, the INDIA bloc has also put the otherwise secular NDA allies like JD(U), TDP, and Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) in a spot.
For over a decade, the Opposition remained in the shadows of BJP’s extraordinary majority in the parliament. But it is surely getting ready to take the BJP-led government head on at the moment, as the ideological lines between the NDA and INDIA are getting sharper by the day.
Read all of The Wire’s reporting on and analysis of the 2024 election results here.
