A large group of political parties in India have launched their version of a ‘Moonshot Pact’ in an attempt to oust the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its leader, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in upcoming elections.
As in South Africa, these elections are scheduled to be held next year.
Twenty-six political parties from across India announced this week in Bengaluru that they would be forming the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).
The Indian National Congress (INC or Congress), India’s biggest-opposition party and which dominated Indian politics for much of the country’s history since it became independent in 1947, is a prominent member of the new alliance. A number of the alliance parties also govern in eleven of India’s 28 states.
INDIA declared that its four primary objectives ahead of the 2024 election were: defeat the BJP in the 2024 general elections; protect the Constitution of India; promote inclusive development; and uphold the secular values of India.
The new alliance announced that it had set up an 11-person steering committee which would deal with co-ordination. A secretariat would also be set up to help the alliance operate without difficulties.
The President of the Congress party, Mallikarjun Kharge, was quoted as saying: ‘There are some differences between us, but we have put that behind… We are together in the interest of the nation. We will fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections unitedly and succeed. Now our aim is to highlight the failures of the Narendra Modi-led government.’
In the last Indian election, held in 2019, the BJP easily won a majority, with 303 seats in the country’s lower house of Parliament, the Lok Sabha, which has 545 members. Congress was the second-biggest party, with 52 seats.
The BJP has in recent years been accused of undermining democracy in India and of discriminating against religious minorities, especially Muslims. A radical wing of the BJP believes that only Hindus can truly be Indian.
[Image: Laurentiu Morariu on Unsplash]