INDIA alliance to meet today after three months, seat sharing, chalking out strategy on agenda

Barely a day after a record number of Opposition MPs were suspended from both Houses of Parliament, the INDIA alliance will meet on Tuesday after three and a half months in Delhi.

At the meeting, the regional parties are expected to demand that seat sharing be finalized at the earliest so that they can start choosing candidates and begin campaign rallies. Caste census is also likely to be on the agenda, the immediate challenge for the INDIA alliance is to build consensus on choosing a convener.

The regional parties expect the Congress to table the main agenda of the meeting. On their part, these parties will submit their suggestions to redraw the joint strategy to take on the BJP, which defeated the Congress in the recent Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.

The regional parties had earlier expressed unhappiness about the alliance’s activities coming to a halt as the Congress prepared for assembly elections in five states. “Evolving a core positive agenda, seat sharing, and a programme to hold joint rallies are among the main points of discussion,” an Opposition leader said on Monday.

The bloc’s members will discuss an alternative positive agenda to counter the BJP and the bloc will move forward with the unity theme “Main nahin, hum (not I, we)”, a Congress member aware of the developments said.

It was one of the Congress’s slogans for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections that saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi come to power for the first time.

A Samajwadi Party (SP) leader said, “The SP will demand discussion on seat sharing. Once distribution of seats is done, the parties can start preparations for selection of candidates, strengthening their organisation, and coordination with the local unit of allies.”

Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD said the alliance’s committees formed earlier had been working behind the scenes to prepare for the polls.

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee, meanwhile, expressed confidence that the members of the alliance would iron out all differences, including on the issue of seat sharing. She told reporters in New Delhi that a three-way alliance was “very much possible” in West Bengal between the TMC, the Congress, and the Left.

Earlier on Monday, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal met Mamata Banerjee and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) supremo Uddhav Thackeray to discuss the political situation, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for next year.

After meeting the West Bengal chief minister, Kejriwal said in a post on X that “political issues” of the country were discussed during the courtesy meeting.

Kejriwal will attend the meeting of the alliance on Tuesday, a person aware of the development said.

The Delhi chief minister on X also shared photos of his meeting with Uddhav Thackeray and other Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders, saying he had the fortune of hosting them at his residence.

The meeting of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) is scheduled to be held at the Ashoka Hotel in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The alliance’s proposed meeting on December 6 was postponed after several top leaders, including Mamata Banerjee, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, expressed their inability to attend the gathering.

The INDIA alliance held its first meeting in Patna on June 23, the second meeting in Bengaluru on July 17 and 18, and the third in Mumbai on August 31 and September 1.