'One step at a time': With INDIA, Oppn assumes savvy name, keeps trickier issues for later 

The 26 opposition parties that had gathered in Bengaluru over the past two days to strategise a united electoral front against the BJP-led NDA coalition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, have christened themselves INDIA – the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance. In the months ahead, these outfits will now have the far trickier job of jointly navigating past individual interests and ideological differences on crucial matters of legislation and policy that often seem as disparate, and at times even antithetical, as the vast diversity within India itself.

One step at a time

Leaders who attended the Bengaluru summit, tactfully shepherded by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, told The Federal that the discussions which took place on July 17 and 18 did not sugar-coat the complexities that lie within the INDIA coalition.

It is, perhaps, for this reason that the dialogue in Bengaluru ended with merely the naming of the alliance – something Kharge described as the “first achievement” of the coalition – and the release of a resolution that reiterated the group’s stand on issues over which its constituents have already articulated their individual and collective stand several times.

Also read: Proactive, independent, tactful: Kharge is the chief Congress long needed

These included concern over the situation in Manipur, the Narendra Modi government’s alleged misuse of central probe agencies against its rivals or the wildfires of communal disharmony, rising unemployment and inflation.

“We have to take one step at a time… in the first Opposition Unity meeting (held in Patna on June 23) we had 16 parties, now we have 26; our strength is increasing, which is good, but we are also conscious of the fact that there are unresolved issues and practical problems among some of our constituents and there is need for further dialogue to iron these out,” a senior MP from one of the INDIA coalition parties told The Federal.

Seat-sharing dynamics

Foremost among these unresolved issues is the big question over devising a seat-sharing formula mutually acceptable to parties with overlapping electoral interests, such as the Trinamool Congress, the Left Front and the Congress in Bengal, the Left Front and the Congress in Kerala or the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi and Punjab.

Sources said that during the informal discussions at the dinner hosted by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on July 17 and then again during the formal deliberations at Taj West End the following day, the Left Front constituents and the AAP insisted that any discussions on the way forward for the INDIA coalition would hinge on the seat-sharing formula. Kejriwal, sources said, wanted the issue prioritised for resolution at Tuesday’s meeting itself but was politely told by Kharge and RJD chief Lalu Yadav that the matter could not be decided in haste.

Also read: Big Opposition meet pulls off a coup, turns 2024 battle into INDIA vs Modi

A leader from the JD (U), the RJD’s ally in Bihar, told The Federal that Lalu assumed the role of a conciliatory statesman at Tuesday’ discussions. His advice against pushing for detailed discussions on seat sharing at Tuesday’s meeting wasn’t directed at Kejriwal alone. The JD (U) leader said Lalu also intervened with the same advice when CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury raised a similar concern and insisted that while it was impossible for the Left Front and the Congress to come to a seat-sharing agreement in Kerala, there were also serious doubts on whether the TMC would concede electoral space to the CPI(M) and the Congress in Bengal.

Lalu is learnt to have pointedly told Yechury, who had previously told the media that the CPI(M) will not enter into a seat-sharing agreement with the Trinamool, to not make any more public statements that could derail the ongoing unity dialogue. The RJD supremo is also learnt to have told Kharge and former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi to rein in Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Mamata Banerjee’s trenchant critic and Bengal Congress chief.

 Next round of talks in Mumbai

The senior MP quoted earlier said that “a positive sign” at the discussions in Bengaluru was that “all leaders spoke candidly and put forth their reservations and doubts without any acrimony; now that the concerns have been articulated, we have to address them.” He said this will take a few more rounds of talks and the next one, as Kharge announced, will be organised in Mumbai, possibly in mid-August.

The broad agenda for the next meeting has also largely been agreed upon so that all parties come prepared for the conclave, which will be hosted by former Maharashtra chief minister and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray. The meeting may also be followed by a public meeting of leaders from the Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) and the Congress party; though a final decision on this will only be taken later this month.

Also read: Joint resolution of 26 Opposition parties strongly pitches for conducting caste census

Kharge told reporters that ahead of the conclave in Bombay, an 11 member coordination committee, with representatives of various constituents of the INDIA coalition, will be set up alongwith other committees on “specific issues”. Additionally, a secretariat will also be set up by the INDIA coalition for the purpose of campaign management. The meeting in Mumbai is also likely to see the coalition naming its convenor, though a chairperson for the alliance on the lines of the role that Sonia Gandhi played for the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance (UPA) may not be appointed.

Sources said one of the issue-specific committees would be mandated to thrash out a state-wise seat sharing formula, which will then be discussed by the coordination committee and members of the secretariat. However, no deadline has been set for these discussions to be concluded and sources say these deliberations “could take a long time before any consensus is reached because it is a very complex issue and all parties will have to come with an open mind”.

Congress assures to abide by general consensus

With several regional parties placing the maximum burden of being “accommodative in the seat sharing talks” on the Congress, given the party’s past insistence on contesting seats that are vastly disproportionate to its diminishing footprint in some states and almost non-existent presence in others, Kharge is learnt to have indicated that the Congress would abide by “whatever is in the best interest of the coalition”. His opening remarks at Tuesday’s meeting, wherein he said that the Congress was “not interested in power or the Prime Minister’s post for itself”, was meant to drive this point further.

Sources said that though former Congress chief Sonia hardly made any interventions at Tuesday’s meeting, she had assured Opposition leaders such as Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal, both of whom have been vocal against the Congress’s inability to defeat the BJP, during the informal dinner discussions on Monday of her “full cooperation” in ensuring that her party would respect the consensus of the coalition on all matters, including seat sharing. Sonia’s past experience of dealing with tricky allies was in ample display at the dinner meeting, where she ensured that both Banerjee and Kejriwal shared the table with her, sources said.

Also read: Sonia’s presence at Bengaluru meet could be the magic mantra for Opposition unity

Why the name INDIA?

Preliminary discussions for the name of the alliance were also said to have taken place at the dinner meet itself. Sources said Rahul had, since the joint Opposition’s June 23 Patna meeting, been insistent that the name of the new alliance must be somehow convey the Opposition’s vision for India – a pitch that was wholeheartedly endorsed by all attendees. Some Opposition members told The Federal that at Monday’s dinner meet, Rahul had pitched for Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) as a possible name for the front but wanted Banerjee to propose it at Tuesday’s meeting.

Interestingly, before Kharge formally announced the coalition’s name, some Opposition leaders had even started tweeting Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance as the proposed name of their grouping. A few Opposition leaders who were present at Tuesday’s meeting told The Federal that the name was, however, changed to Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance during the last leg of the discussions by when some of the attendees had already left as they had to catch their flights. Thus, these leaders learnt of the altered name only after it was formally announced (two of them told The Federal that they preferred the earlier version). Why or on whose suggestion Democratic was replaced with Developmental in the final announcement was not clear.

Notwithstanding, the convoluted new name and the confusion it triggered among some, all coalition members believed that the acronym INDIA for their grouping was a “masterstroke” that left Modi and members of the BJP-led NDA hamming. Sources said that the Opposition members may also add a Hindi punch line, possibly inspired from Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, which could also double up as a catchy election slogan, to the name of their coalition when they meet in Mumbai next month.

With a formidable name to now bind them together, the 26 Opposition parties now hope that other pieces of their electoral jigsaw will also gradually fall in place over the next few rounds of unity dialogues.

Also read: Bengaluru: ‘United We Stand’ is slogan of 26 Opposition parties

“The plan is to find commonalities that bind us together and leave contentious or potentially divisive issues such as a decision on face of the coalition for later,” said another Opposition leader, adding that this was why the group avoided lengthy discussions on the Uniform Civil Code debate being pushed by the BJP currently.