India's opposition parties conducted a meeting in Patna on Friday, where they revealed that they would join forces to defeat the governing Modi administration in the 2024 elections.
The grand meeting, which included as many as 17 opposition parties, sent a powerful message of unity against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The groups said they would work together to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha election and overthrow the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
India's Opposition Parties Join Forces
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar hosted the meeting, after which the opposition leaders said their next meeting would be held soon and based in Shimla. He added that Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge would lead it.
After a nearly four-hour meeting, the opposition parties' announcements were made during a press conference. During that event, Kumar said the leaders would soon meet again to finalize their plans to fight together in the elections, as per the Times of India.
In a statement, Kumar said that the opposition parties had a good meeting and noted that several leaders had expressed their views during the talks. The official added the groups were working in the national interest, and he accused the BJP of acting against it by trying to change the nation's history.
Kharge said that they have decided to prepare a common agenda and will make decisions in their next meeting regarding steps to take moving forward. He added that they would have to evolve separate plans for each state and emphasized that they would work together to overthrow the BJP.
On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi, a key figure in the Indian National Congress (INC), talked about the meeting, saying that they may have some differences now. Still, they have decided to put those aside and unite against the governing Modi administration.
Overthrowing Narendra Modi's Administration
West Bengal's Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that if India's dictatorial government returns after the 2024 elections, there will no longer be any elections afterward. However, representatives from some parties did not join the post-meeting press conference held on Friday, according to DW News.
But the BJP, on the other hand, dismissed the opposition parties' meeting as a "futile exercise." Moving forward, the opposition parties would run joint candidates in certain constituencies across the country to stop the governing Modi party from benefitting from a splintering in votes among opposition parties.
A political analyst, Arti Jerath, said that there are still many obstacles that opposition parties have to get through before a proper opposition united front can be founded. Jerath added that for the last four years, opposition parties had faced harassment from federal investigative agencies. He noted that the BJP had played politics with each of them to break them up and harass the groups' leaders.
Many leaders of opposition parties argued that the Indian prime minister is trying to galvanize Hindu voters by keeping silent on attacks conducted by Hindu nationalists on Muslims and other religious minorities. The situation comes as Hindus comprise 80% of the country's 1.4 billion people, Muslims 14%, and Christians 2.3%, said Yahoo News.
