Nitish Kumar agreed to alliance name INDIA after initial hesitation

Bihar chief minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar, one of the key architects of opposition unity, needed some convincing when opposition leaders suggested the acronym INDIA for their alliance.

After a lot back and forth, it was agreed that the opposition alliance will not be called the earlier United Progressive Alliance but will be known as the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance or the catchy INDIA.

Until then, names like Save India Alliance, Secular India Alliance, Indian People’s Front, Indian Main Front and simply We for India were thrown about by various leaders including VCK’s Tholkappiyan Thirumavalavan, MDMK leader Vaiko and CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury.

Also Read: Opposition front’s alliance I.N.D.I.A now has a tagline – ‘Jeetega Bharat’

While some participants at the July 17-18 meeting of opposition leaders in Bengaluru suggested that the name INDIA was the brainchild of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, a Congress leader and a NCP leader attributed it to Rahul Gandhi, who himself took no credit.

When Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge announced that the alliance which will take on the ruling BJP and its allies in next year’s parliamentary elections will be called INDIA, Nitish Kumar raised his objection.

Going with INDIA

He wondered how an opposition alliance could be named INDIA and whether it was a fine strategy to go with a name whose acronym would be similar to the BJP-led NDA or National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

On his part, Nitish Kumar suggested names like India Main Front or India Main Alliance.

But finally, the Bihar chief minister agreed to sail with INDIA. “All right, if all of you are okay with it, then it is fine,” he said.

Also Read: ‘One step at a time’: With INDIA, Oppn assumes savvy name, keeps trickier issues for later

To keep the names of INDIA and NDA different, the Congress suggested that the “D” in INDIA should be “Developmental” and not “Democratic”.

As the BJP attacked the name, pitting “INDIA” against “Bharat”, the opposition front on Wednesday announced its tagline in Hindi — Jeetega Bharat (India will win).

The tagline was reportedly decided late Tuesday night. Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray, who will play the host in Mumbai for the next meeting of opposition leaders, wanted a Hindi tagline.

The 26 opposition parties which met in Bengaluru also decided to set up an 11-member coordination committee.

(With agency inputs)