At INDIA bloc meeting, Congress is called ‘glue’ as 23 parties target 2029

AT their get together to project their strategy for the 2029 subject election, 23 parties of the native american subject Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc on Monday sought to present a unified front and launched a scathing attack on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that it accused of “stealing” the recent state elections.The bloc, which was meeting after the recent round of state elections in which the BJP delivered a stunning victory against the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal, also recognised the Congress as the “glue” holding the fractured opposition together. None of the leaders criticised the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which didn’t attend, possibly to keep hopes of future coordination alive.Addressing a media briefing at the end of the meeting, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the INDIA bloc decided to write to the Chief Justice of India over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), hold more frequent meetings, demand the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the exam leaks, continue coordination in parliament and ask the central government to convene an all-party meeting to discuss people-centric issues.“It was agreed to send a letter to the Chief Justice of India on SIR, vote loot and stealing elections. The letter is to be delivered to the Chief Justice of India very soon,” he said.“It was unanimously agreed to demand the immediate resignation of the education minister because he presided over the betrayal of lakhs of youth who appeared for NEET and CBSE examinations,” the Congress leader said.Kharge also said the INDIA bloc leaders decided to meet every two months to review national politics and coordinate strategy. The next meeting of the group will be in Hyderabad on August 8.Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, who spoke at the end, said at the closed-door meeting that “Mamata Banerjee is 90% sure elections got robbed. Akhilesh Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav are 40% sure that their elections were robbed. I am 100% sure elections were robbed.”Gandhi also warned of an impending domestic “economic catastrophe,” asserting that the government was compromised and that the Opposition must prepare to mobilise public support.In a rare and candid introspection, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav told the leaders that it was a mistake to allow former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to leave the alliance and not to have offered him the coordinator’s role sooner.But the meeting also exposed rifts within the anti-incumbency bloc.According to people present at the meeting, regional rivalries briefly surfaced when Communist Party of India (Marxist) lawmaker John Brittas confronted Gandhi over Congress’s campaign narrative in Kerala, where the two parties compete.Brittas challenged Congress’s allegations that his party maintained a hidden pact with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “We were fighting the election in Kerala,” Gandhi responded, according to the attendees. “Do you expect that I will hug your chief minister?”Several leaders expressed solidarity with TMC chief Mamata Banerjee after her party’s defeat in the West Bengal assembly polls and the continuing defection of lawmakers, MLAs and MPs from her party.She spoke at length about efforts by constitutional authorities to influence the state elections and drew a parallel to how former PM Indira Gandhi orchestrated a massive political fightback in 1979 to return to power in the national elections the following year.“We have to stand strongly united. Forget the past and let the Congress decide on coordination,” she said.Mamata also suggested that INDIA parties should not criticise each other.Many other leaders spoke about the atrocities targeted against TMC in West Bengal including the attack on TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee. Uddhav Thackeray, who, along with Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, joined the meeting virtually, said Abhishek was injured in a recent attack, but no hospital agreed to admit him.Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, the first one to speak after Kharge outlined the political situation in the state, said the BJP had won the by-elections in UP, including Ayodhya, by cheating.The lessons from the past include “the need for unity among alliance partners,” he said, appealing to Congress to show a big heart in future.Then he turned to Mamata Banerjee and said, “If you think she lost, you are wrong. She has been robbed by the Election Commission, central forces and the BJP.”A second leader present at the meeting said Yadav stressed that the Congress should back the strongest regional party in a state,Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav, who spoke after Akhilesh, emphasised a strategy to hit the road and focus on the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.Former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray proposed that the INDIA group meet more frequently. “The learning from the last INDIA meeting was that we need good coordination. These 23 parties must come forward as INDIA united,” Thackeray said, while she praised Mamata Banerjee for fighting like a sherni (tigress).NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule also emphasised unity and mentioned that the MVA allies -- Congress, Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) -- were working very well in Maharashtra.Before the meeting began, Sonia Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee spoke for about 10 minutes and also hugged each other.Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah was one of the most optimistic voices in the meeting. “The introspection has to be done collectively. We have actually achieved something big. Let’s not sit in this room looking gloomy. Last time we sat, there was no minority government. Now we have reduced the Narendra Modi government to a minority government with just 240 MPs. Let us look ahead to 2029 and let us acknowledge that Congress is the glue that holds India together,” Abdullah said.A senior TMC leader pointed out that no leader used the word bloc or alliance and everyone referred to the group as INDIA. PDP leader Mehabooba Mufti even suggested that the group should find a social media presence as “ INDIA PARTIES”.CPI-ML leader Dipankar Bhattacharyya argued that “so far we are an idea. Let’s make that into an identity.” He also pointed out that, post-SIR and disenfranchisement, thousands of people will not receive government benefits.