The battlelines for the 2024 General Election are now clearly drawn, with 26 Opposition parties forming an anti-BJP front named INDIA, an acronym for the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance. The Opposition now has a name, though it still doesn’t have a face. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who faces the prospect of being debarred from contesting next year’s Lok Sabha poll if the Supreme Court upholds his conviction and sentence in a defamation case, has declared that INDIA will unitedly fight Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the ‘idea of India’. PM Modi, in turn, said during a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) that India had a long tradition of coalitions, but those formed on the basis of negativity had never succeeded. Notably, 38 parties attended the meeting of the BJP-led NDA, including the Shiv Sena and NCP factions led by Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar; respectively.

The NDA’s parallel show of strength made it obvious that the BJP is not taking the Opposition lightly; the latter has already held two major meetings (in Patna and Bengaluru) in less than a month, with a coordination committee set to be formed at the next meeting in Mumbai.

The all-important question is: do these parties have the firepower and cohesion to stop the BJP’s juggernaut in 2024? The 26 parties account for around 150 seats in the Lok Sabha, less than half the NDA’s current strength. The Congress, which is in power in Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh (besides being a junior member of the ruling alliance in Jharkhand), continues to be the premier Opposition party. Much will depend on whether the Congress and its INDIA partners such as AAP and the Trinamool Congress are able to rise above their differences. Going by the split in the Shiv Sena and the NCP, the BJP will stop at nothing to cripple the Opposition camp.
(Tribune, India)