After A Series Of Setbacks, INDIA Bloc Meet On June 8 Is Significant

After a series of political setbacks since Lok Sabha Election 2024, the meet of the INDIA bloc scheduled to be held at the Constitution Club in New Delhi on June 8 is a significant development, especially when one of its allies DMK has announced to skip the meet, and the BJP has claimed that INDIA bloc is dead and buried, and exists only on paper.

The meet is significant on account of other reasons too. It is the first meet of the top leaders after they met in December 2023, ahead of general elections 2024. Several meetings of INDIA bloc were held thereafter, but top leaders did not come together in any of the subsequent meetings. As of now as many as 17 top leaders of the 35 constituent parties are reported to participate in the June 8 meet which included TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, JMM supremo Hemant Soren, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray.

It should be noted that DMK had announced that they will not participate in the meet, which has been sensationalised in some news papers as “DMK to boycott the meet”. However, they failed to note that DMK has simultaneously maintained that it remained committed to broader Opposition solidarity on national issues. It indicates that in spite of some serious grievances of the DMK against the Congress, DMK will remain in broader opposition solidarity against the BJP’s policy regarding national issues.

It is a matter of serious concern for the BJP and hence the party has tried today June 5 to portray the INDIA bloc in very bad light. BJP’s national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said, “The INDI alliance has now broken into pieces. It was predicted that on May 4 there would be nothing called the INDI alliance left, and that prediction came true.”

Poonawalla referred May 4, the day of election results of five states including Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal. In Tamil Nadu, DMK led government lost power to TVK led by Vijay; in Kerala Congress led UDF thrown LDF government led by CPI(M), and in West Bengal BJP thrown TMC led by Mamata out of power. Poonawalla has seen in the results and aftermath a disintegration of INDIA bloc, which was just a hype of the BJP, as the confirmation of top leaders participating in INDIA bloc meet on June 8 indicates, in which only DMK has announced not to participate but has stated the party’s commitment to broader solidarity. Poonawalla’s statement – “The INDI alliance is dead and buried. It may exist on paper and on television screens, but it does not exist in reality” – is just an overstatement.

Since its inception, INDIA bloc has been working on the principle of “March separately, Strike Together”, as the then CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury had suggested, because the Left Front had stakes in West Bengal and Kerala, where they had to fight TMC and Congress led UDF respectively. It allowed Left, TMC, and Congress to be part of the INDIA bloc though they have been fighting with each other in their respective states of influence. Here lies a hope for the INDIA bloc, which will sure to find a way out for a united front at the national level against the BJP, even though DMK on June 4 issued a strongly-worded statement and said that “out of respect for the feelings of party comrades who are deeply hurt by the betrayal committed by the Congress party against DMK after the Assembly election in Tamil Nadu, the DMK will not participate in the INDIA alliance meeting.”

DMK’s stand not to sit with the Congress in the Parliament, and not to participate in the INDIA bloc meet is, of course, a matter of concern. It was a result of Congress shifting its stand deserting DMK to join TVK government. Other two allies of INDIA bloc VCK and IUML has also joined TVK government. However, TVK’s ambivalence on becoming part of the INDIA bloc continues. Even if it does not become part of INDIA bloc, it is not likely to join hands with the BJP.

BJP has its own worries in Tamil Nadu. A former popular BJP leader K Annamalai has resigned from the party and has announced ‘new political movement’ in the state. Tamil Nadu politics is therefore taking a new shape, and it will be too early to announce death of INDIA bloc, in Tamil Nadu, and at national level. BJP will try to implement its decisions, such as delimitation of constituencies and “One Nation One Election” before 2029 Lok Sabha election, and hence INDIA bloc meet on June 8 has become important, where a broader solidarity among the anti-BJP political forces is most likely to be renewed.

Grievances and difference of opinion are there, but they will finally be sorted out. Two important states are going to polls in 2027 are Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. At present Congress and Samajwadi parties are preparing for election on their own, but it is worth nothing that SP Supremo Akhilesh Yadav will be participating in INDIA bloc. SP and Congress had contested 2024 Lok Sabha election in the state and considerably reduced the BJP’s seats in the Lok Sabha to only 240 seats. They are most likely to join hands for 2027 Legislative assembly election in the state. In Punjab, AAP is in power and they will have to battle with the Congress candidates. BJP has not strength in there, and hence contest between AAP and Congress will not benefit BJP. Obviously, AAP is not participating in INDIA bloc’s June 8 meet, but they will be part of opposition solidarity at national level.

Despite the Left and TMC political tussle, historically and currently, top leadership from both camps have confirmed their participation in the INDIA bloc meet.

INDIA bloc’s trying to renew their unity – and if possible, expand it – during the June 8 meet is significant at this juncture when BJP is trying to introduce sweeping political changes in the country in the form of SIR, NRC, One Nation One Election, and delimitation. This unity among non-BJP political parties will be important because they altogether have support of about 63 per cent of voters in the country. For INDIA bloc parties, it is a time to stand against BJP’s intention of sweeping political changes, that may alter the fate of the country, under which future elections will be contested. June 8 meet will be an occasion when the opposition INDIA bloc will show solidarity to the BJP and the nation. (IPA Service)