New Delhi: The Opposition alliance INDIA is moving from strength to strength and this has left Prime Minister Narendra Modi flummoxed, former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said on Tuesday.
“The Opposition alliance INDIA is moving from strength to strength. As a result, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is already flummoxed. The Prime Minister is panicky and that is why he called a meeting of the NDA in Mumbai on the same day INDIA leaders would get together. This is good for us. They will make mistakes and it will help the opposition,” former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan told ETV Bharat.
The third meeting of the Opposition alliance will take place in Mumbai on August 31 and September 1. The meeting is being hosted by the Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray, which is part of the Congress-Shiv Sena (UBT)-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance in the western state.
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According to the former Maharashtra Chief Minister, the fact that Janata Dal-United had hosted the first INDIA meeting in Patna on June 23 and Shiv Sena UBT was hosting the third alliance in Mumbai showed that regional parties were getting due importance in the Opposition alliance and were playing important roles.
“Though the Congress and the NCP are also assisting Shiv Sena UBT to host the Opposition conclave, we have no problem with Sena UBT taking the credit for it,” said Chavan, who is a Member of the Legislative Assembly and hails from Karad in Satara district.
Incidentally, the INDIA alliance had held its second meeting in Bengaluru on July 18 and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) too had held its session in Delhi on the same day.
The former Chief Minister said that at present INDIA had 26 parties and some new additions were likely to the Opposition alliance but the proposal will be discussed during the third meeting in Mumbai.
“The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is a former ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Punjab. The SAD parted ways with the BJP over the three controversial farm laws that the Centre had to repeal after huge protests from the farmers. If the SAD chooses to go with the BJP again, it may suffer a huge backlash from the farmers, who are anti-Modi in Punjab. I think the SAD may instead opt to join the INDIA alliance. The same is the case with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in Haryana. There is no decision on taking them as of now but such proposals will be discussed during the Mumbai meeting and may well take some more time to decide,” said Chavan.
“The INDIA alliance’s vote share is slightly better than that of the NDA although exact percentages may vary between now and the 2024 polls. INDIA is in good shape and may attract more partners over the coming days,” he said.
However, the former Union Minister acknowledged issues like seat-sharing between the INDIA partners and whether Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will stay in the alliance or not were tricky. “I am not saying that seat-sharing will not be tricky. The same goes for whether AAP will stay or not or whether more regional parties will join us or not. We would have to cross the bridge when we come to it. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will try to influence the regional parties so that they contest the 2024 polls independently. That will help the BJP,” Chavan signed off.
