38 vs 26: India's ruling NDA and opposition parties hold meetings to assert dominance

The battle lines have been drawn andtrenches dug ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in India. The opposition has huddled in a camp in the southern city of Bengaluru by inviting 26 like-minded parties to join forces and beat the BJP-led NDA which claims to have 38 parties in its fold.

While BJP initially laughed off attempts by the opposition to coalesce together to stage a fightback, it has seemingly pulled its socks in the last few days.BJP President JP Nadda on Monday (July 17) launched a full-blown attack on the opposition joint meeting saying NDA was the only ideal coalition to “serve” and “strengthen” the country.

NDA attempts to rattle joint opposition

“The BJP is the only party that, since it came into existence, has pursued issues ideologically — be it the Ram Temple or Article 370, we have always stood for a strong nation. We were for nuclear tests and Atalji (Bihari Vajpayee) went ahead with them… We have been consistent. And it’s an ideological journey… Some people understand us today, some tomorrow. If not today, we will get them after five or 10 years,” Nadda said.

He added that 38 parties under the NDA umbrella will bemeeting on Tuesday (July 18), with the talksscheduled to start just after 4 pm when the opposition wraps up its meeting in Bengaluru.

Opposition charts a path

Notably, on Tuesday, the opposition will be assembling for the second day at a five-star hotel in Bengaluru where proceedings were kicked off with a grand dinner meeting late Monday night. Ahead of the meeting,Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said “well begun is half done” and sounded optimistic that the parties will finally pull through.

The likes of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin among others were present during the dinner - sending a message to the saffron party.

As for the agenda of the meeting, the opposition camp said it washere to 'save democracy' in the country.

"We are not here to come to power, we are here to save the world's biggest democracy.We will decide in this meeting what will be the future course of action," read a statement released.

Watch |We have decided to fight elections together', says Nitish Kumar after opposition meet

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The joint opposition, in its draft agenda, has talked about setting up a subcommittee for drafting the common minimum programme andcommunications points. Additionally, the alliance is set to discussseat sharing on a state-to-state basis and a new name for the coalition.

"We will take all decisions in the meeting. I cannot tell now what issues will be discussed. We are not alone in the meeting, there are other parties. We will discuss in the meeting tomorrow whether UPA will remain the name or something else," said Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal when quizzed about the name change.

Tuesday's meeting will also see the attendance of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar who seemingly gave a miss to the proceedings on the first day.

Notably, this is not the first time that the opposition has joined hands and attempted to put up a strong front.Earlier, such opposition unit (Third front) was forged, at least on paper, to challenge the duopoly of BJP and Congress. Butin recent times, Congress has also joined the smaller parties after witnessing its vote count shrink considerably in the last two general elections.

(With inputs from agencies)

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