Opposition Bloc India Forms Apex Coordination Committee, Working Groups For Media Management And Research

The Opposition bloc INDIA on Friday formed a 14-member apex Coordination Committee that will be its top decision-making body. 

The INDIA bloc also formed the Campaign Committee and three working groups under the coordination committee for specific tasks: Working Group for Social Media, Working Group for Media, Working Group for Research.

While top leaders of the bloc like Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Mamata Banerjee, or Arvind Kejriwal are absent from these groupings, senior coalition leaders like Sharad Pawar, KV Venugopal, Omar Abdullah, and Jairam Ramesh are part of these groups. 

The formation of the 14-member Coordination Committee, which also doubles as Election Strategy Committee, was among the three major announcements made at the end of the two-day conclave of INDIA bloc in Mumbai on Friday. 

Speaking at the press conference, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray said three resolutions were adopted by the bloc. 

He said, "Today, INDIA parties have taken three resolutions. First resolution: We, the INDIA parties, herby resolve to contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections together as far as possible. Seat sharing arrangements in different states will be initiated immediately and concluded at the earliest in a collaborative spirit of give and take. Second resolution: We, the INDIA parties, hereby resolve to organise public rallies at the earliest in different parts of the country on issues of public concern and importance. The third resolution: We the INDIA parties, hereby resolve to cordinate our respective communications and media strategies and campaigns on the theme of 'Judega Bharat, Jeetega INDIA'." 

The INDIA bloc resolved on Friday to finalise the seat-sharing arrangement at the earliest in the spirit of "give and take". The PTI quoted sources as saying the seat-sharing arrangements among the coalition parties would be finalised by September 30. 

The INDIA bloc came into being when 28 Opposition parties came together in July to announce their coalition named Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). The idea behind the coalition is to minimise the distribution of non-BJP voters and field joint candidates as much as possible to converge all non-BJP voters and defeat BJP candidates. While the parties have a common objective to defeat the BJP, there are internal contradictions as some parties clash in certain pockets —such as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress in Delhi; AAP and Congress in Punjab; Congress, the Left parties, and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal— and there are signs of differences on some policy issues.

While the INDIA bloc has come up with committees and working groups, and there are signs that a seat-sharing arrangement is in the offing, there is yet no word on a common programme or a prime ministerial candidate. 

The members of the two committees and three working groups are as follows: 

Coordination Committee and Election Strategy Committee

1. KC Venugopal, INC
2. Sharad Pawar, NCP
3. TR Baalu, DMK
4. Hemant Soren, JMM
5. Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena (UBT)
6. Tejasvi Yadav, RJD
7. Abhishek Banerjee, TMC
8. Raghav Chaddha, AAP
9. Javed Ali Khan, SP
10. Lallan Singh, JD(U)
11. D Raja, CPI
12. Omar Abdullah, NC
13. Mehbooba Mufti, PDP
14. CPI-M to give name later

Campaign Committee

1. Gurdeep Singh Sappal, INC
2. Sanjay Jha, JD(U)
3. Anil Desai, SS
4. Sanjay Yadav, RJD
5. PC Chako, NCP
6. Champai Soren, JMM
7. Kiranmoy Nanda, SP
8. Sanjay Singh, AAP
9. Arun Kumar, CPI(M)
10. Binoy Vishwam, CPI
11. Hasnain Masoodi, NC
12. Shahid Siddiqui, RLD
13.NK Premachandran, RSP
14. G. Devarajan, AIFB
15. Ravi Rai, CPI(ML)
16. Thirumavalan, VCK
17. KM Kadar Moidin, IUML
18. Jose K. Mani, KC(M)
19. TMC (to give name later)

Working Group for Social Media

1. Supriya Srinate, INC
2. Sumit Sharma, RJD
3. Ashish Yadav, SP
4. Rajeev Nigam, SP
5. Raghav Chaddha, AAP
6. Avindani, JMM
7. Iltija Mehbooba, PDP
8. Pranjal , CPM
9. Bhalchandran Kango, CPI
10. Ifra Ja, NC
11.  V Arun Kumar, CPI(ML)
12. TMC (to give name later)

Working Group for Media

1.  Jairam Ramesh, INC
2. Manoj Jha, RJD
3. Arvind Sawant, SS
4. Jitendra Ahwad, NCP
5.  Raghav Chaddha, AAP
6. Rajiv Ranjan, JD(U)
7. Pranjal , CPM
8. Ashish Yadav, SP
9.  Supriyo Bhattacharya, JMM
10. Alok Kumar, JMM
11.  Manish Kumar, JD(U)
12. Rajeev Nigam, SP
13. Bhalchandran Kango, CPI
14. Tanvir Sadiq, NC
15. Prashant Kannojia
16. Naren Chatterjee, AIFB
17. Sucheta De, CPI(ML)
18. Mohit Bhan, PDP
19. TMC (to give name later)

Working Group for Research

1. Amitabh Dubey, INC
2. Subodh Mehta, RJD
3. Priyanka Chaturvedi, SS
4.  Vandana Chavan, NCP
5. KC Tyagi, JD(U)
6. Sudivya Kumar Sonu, JMM
7. Jasmine Shah, AAP
8. Alok Ranjan, SP
9. Imran Nabi Dar, NC
10. Aditya, PDP
11. TMC (to give name later)