Indian opposition parties unite to take on Narendra Modi

Get Free Indian Politics & Policy Updates

we will send you one myFT Daily Digest Latest Email Rounding Indian Politics and Policy News every morning.

India’s splintered and centre-left opposition parties have united in a rare show of solidarity, with the aim of ousting Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party from power in next year’s election.

More than two dozen parties joined the alliance, which was called “India” or the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance.

“The main objective is to stand together to protect democracy and the Constitution,” Mallikarjun Kharge, president of the largest opposition Indian National Congress, said at the end of a two-day meeting of the groups in Bengaluru on Tuesday.

The parties vowed to “stand together to defend the idea of ​​India enshrined in the constitution”, at a time when watchdog groups say the country’s pluralistic culture, civil society and media are falling under the increasingly powerful influence of the Hindu nationalist BJP. Are.

Modi will seek re-election for a third term next year at a time when India’s prominence as a global diplomatic and economic power is rising, but its booming economy grapples with rising unemployment.

The BJP is stepping up its pre-poll attacks on its rivals as it seeks to protect its parliamentary majority against the Congress-led opposition. The parties are likely to attack the BJP over its economic record and other domestic problems, including the violent conflict in the north-eastern state of Manipur.

“The very character of our republic is being systematically attacked by the BJP,” the opposition group said in a statement on Tuesday.

Twenty-six parties including the Congress have joined the alliance; the Aam Aadmi Party, which controls the governments in northern Punjab state and Delhi; and the All India Trinamool Congress, a powerful regional party in West Bengal.

Indians online joked about the India acronym, with many seeing it as a clever ploy to play the nationalist card against the BJP. Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee said, “BJP, can you challenge India.”

However, analysts said the new alliance would face tall odds against the BJP, which won a majority in parliament in 2014 and 2019 and is expected to win again in the upcoming polls in April and May of 2024.

Previous attempts by the opposition to unite against Modi-led BJP governments have failed because the parties are direct rivals in state governments.

The BJP this week held a meeting of its own National Democratic Alliance, which included 38 other parties it sees as allies.

“Today the opposition has earned a reputation for calling us names and humiliating us,” Modi told a meeting of the BJP-led coalition on Tuesday. “But the NDA has always kept the interest of the country above politics.”

In its mission statement, India pledged to “face a severe economic crisis of ever-increasing prices of essential commodities and record unemployment”, indicating the possibility of an attack by opposition groups on Modi’s economic record in the upcoming campaign.

In Karnataka state elections in May, the Congress toppled the BJP’s local government, dealing a blow to the ruling party’s image of invincibility.

Sanjay Kumar, political analyst at the Center for the Study of Developing Societies, said, “Forming alliances gives strength to the opposition, but in my opinion, even this alliance is no guarantee for the opposition to win the elections in 2024.” However, he added: “It makes the 2024 election more competitive.”