The multi-front non-BJP parties who have assembled with a pledge to put up a united fight against the BJP, yesterday came up with a the name 'INDIA' which stands for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance.
The name selection process also witnessed an unusual and interesting jugalbandi between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress at the Opposition party meeting in Bengaluru.
As per media reports, the name INDIA for the alliance was suggested first by senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Rahul said the battle is no longer between two political formations or Opposition and the BJP, but for the voice of the country which is being “silenced and crushed”. “The battle is for the idea of India. That is why we came up with this name… the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance. That means INDIA. The battle is between the NDA and INDIA, their ideology and INDIA. And you know who wins when somebody stands against India.”
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But before announcing the name officially, Gandhi wanted Congress general secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal to get it cleared with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee first.
It has been reported that CM Banerjee readily agreed to the name only suggesting that N stand for “new” instead of “national” which was folowed by an informal discussion on whether the letter D should stand for democratic or developmental.
Post dinner, some leaders assembled to give the name a final shape and they also took the decision of letting CM Mamata Banerjee announce the name.
As per the script, the TMC chief proposed the name, after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had made his opening remarks.
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However, not all the leaders were on the same page initially regarding the name INDIA.
It has been reported that Bihar CM and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar raised question about how a political alliance could be named INDIA. Left leaders Sitaram Yechury, D Raja and G Devarajan were not immediately convinced either, and went into a huddle midway through the meeting.
However, the name stayed as Rahul Gandhi, at the end of the meeting, passionately backed it with an arguement that the Opposition could easily create an INDIA vs NDA narrative, and convey to be people that Narendra Modi was “against INDIA” and that all those who are against the BJP “were INDIA”.
Besides INDIA, some other some other suggestions came up as well during the meeting which include People’s Alliance for India and Progressive People’s Alliance. The PDP’sMehbooba Mufti suggested ‘Bharat Jodo Alliance’, pointing out that Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra was a success.
Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray suggested that there be a Hindi tagline with the name, which is being worked out.
Amid the entire name game, it has been reported that Delhi CM and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal said that deciding a seat-sharing arrangement was more crucial than giving the alliance a name.
Kejriwal was backed by Sitaram Yechury who also argued that seat-sharing was the main issue, while bringing up the problems that might be faced in states, giving the example of Kerala and West Bengal where the Congress and Left have been traditional rivals. He said the question is how accommodative could the Congress be.
