DMK Stays Away, 23 Parties Attend INDIA Bloc Meeting, Decides to Write to CJI on SIR

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, June 8: The leaders of the 23 parties of the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc met on Monday after a gap of about two years and stressed the importance of unity within the INDIA bloc and called for the need to safeguard democratic values and address issues related to people’s livelihoods.

The meeting held at the Constitution Club in New Delhi against the backdrop of differences emerging among some of its constituents, sought to present a unified front and launched a scathing attack on the ruling 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 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.

Opposition leaders including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge of the Congress, Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress, Akhilesh Yadav of Samajwadi Paty, Tejashwi Yadav of RJD, Omar Abdullah of National Conference (NC) and Mehbooba Mufti of PDP, besides Left leaders, attended the meeting. NCP(SP) leader Supriya Sule, CPI(M)’s John Brittas, CPI’s D. Raja and leaders of some smaller parties were also part of the deliberations. Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Uddhav Thackeray attended the meeting virtually.

Mr Kharge said the leaders have unanimously agreed to demand the immediate resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The India bloc leaders also urged the central government to call for an all-party meeting to discuss the precarious economic situation. “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 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.

The Congress, however, had to face some criticism also at the meeting with leaders like Akhilesh Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav indulging in some plain speaking. Some of the leaders while some from the CPI(M) and the NCP (SP), took a dig at the Congress for breaking its long-held alliance with the DMK in Tamil Nadu.

Sources said Akhilesh Yadav bluntly told the Congress leadership that the party should show a “large heart” and be “accommodative”. The SP president pointed out that the meeting of the alliance itself was taking place after a long gap and during this time the political situation had become much more vitiated. He said the alliance should introspect whether it was acting the way it should have.

Coming to the Congress, Akhilesh said regional parties had no qualms in saying they are in an alliance with the Congress, but the national party never says so. He was critical of the Congress for breaking the alliance with the DMK, a point endorsed later by NCP (SP)’s Supriya Sule and CPI(M)’s John Brittas.

The SP chief said the Congress’s state leaderships perhaps were not able to gauge the seriousness of the political situation. Tejashwi Yadav endorsed this and, at one point, is learnt to have said that the Congress’s state leadership in Bihar is “compromised.” Akhilesh is learnt to have said had Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar been in the alliance, the situation would have been different now.

Referring to the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) raids at the residence of former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Akhilesh said INDIA bloc members should stand with each other when central agencies target any of them. Endorsing Akhilesh, Tejashwi said he had pleaded with the Congress during the last round of Rajya Sabha elections, but received no response. Flagging the issue of lack of coordination, he said the constituents of the alliance fought each other in 10 to 15 seats in Bihar.

Ms Mamata Banerjee spoke about “political atrocities” before, during, and after the Assembly elections. She appealed to the leaders to stand united and let the Congress take the lead in coordination between the parties of the INDIA bloc. The bloc needs to encourage civil society movements and try not to criticise each other, she said.

Alleging that the Bengal election was “stolen,” Banerjee called for a delegation of the alliance to meet the Election Commission (EC), but the proposal did not find much traction. In the end, it was decided that the bloc would write to the Chief Justice of India (CJI).

In the meeting Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray, who joined virtually, suggested that the alliance should project a leader as its face. He argued that the alliance should introspect why an online phenomenon such as the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) had managed to get such traction. “Have people lost faith in us?” he is learnt to have said. He said the alliance should be active all the time not just during elections and should hit the roads.

CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP Brittas said the BJP was managing to win elections after elections despite mass discontent among people. Brittas conveyed his party’s strong displeasure to the Congress about attacks on Vijayan by its national leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, during the recent Assembly election campaign. Brittas too flagged the Congress breaking its alliance with the DMK, saying driving out the M K Stalin-led party from the INDIA bloc was not “a good omen.” He said the impression was that the Congress did it for a ministerial berth or a Rajya Sabha seat and argued such deviation was unfortunate.

Replying at the end, Rahul Gandhi said he accepted all the criticism with a smile and assured the leaders that his role was to unite all of them with “love and affection.” Gandhi reiterated his long-held view that elections in the country are stolen. “It is clear that the Congress and INDIA are on one side and on the other side it is BJP-RSS. We will have love and affection to unite these parties,” the LoP said.

Gandhi is learnt to have said in response to Brittas’s remarks that he had no personal enmity with Vijayan and argued speeches during campaigning are crafted taking inputs and feedback from the state leadership. He played down his attacks on Vijayan, saying it was done during campaigning and should not be seen as a personal attack.