New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was the one who floated a very catchy and relevant acronym INDIA for the new opposition alliance which was instantly liked by all the parties.
Following it, the 26 opposition parties that attended the 2-day Bengaluru meeting unanimously adopted the proposal to name their coalition as 'Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance' or INDIA.
Sources said the original suggestion was to call it "Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance", but the word "democratic" was replaced with "developmental" after some leaders said it sounded too similar to the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA). It was also discussed if the word "national" should be dropped, but it was finally decided to retain it, sources said.
A tagline to the name "INDIA", preferably in Hindi, will soon be finalised, they said. While "INDIA" name first came up during the informal dinner Monday night, sources indicated that it took time to decide on the full nomenclature. In fact, a senior leader said, the name was decided at the fag end of the official deliberations.
The opposition leaders also deliberated on some other names, but "INDIA" was finalised after a consensus. One such suggestion was to call the coalition "India's Main Front (IMF)". Some other suggested names were "Indian People's Front", "Indian Progressive Front" and "We For India".
Sources said when a leader mentioned "We For India", Rahul Gandhi remarked, "We should go for 'INDIA'". Gandhi was the last speaker at the meeting.
What made Bengaluru meet a 'success'
The Congress power trio comprising former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and incumbent president Mallikarjun Kharge achieved a major milestone on Tuesday towards forging opposition unity for the 2024 national polls. While Rahul's suggestion to name the alliance INDIA send out a strong message, it was Sonia Gandhi, who successfully forged and steered the United Progressive Alliance from 2004 to 2014, who made a major difference during the Bengaluru meet.
Her presence at the Bengaluru opposition meeting certainly helped sober down a mercurial TMC boss and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. In her capacity as the chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party, it was Sonia Gandhi again who cleared the way for the Congress to publicly state that it will oppose the controversial Delhi ordinance during the monsoon session of Parliament starting on July 20.
According to party insiders, while the leadership was in two minds over supporting a demand made by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, it was Sonia’s deft thinking that helped the grand old party rope in the AAP founder for the Bengaluru meet. "The TMC and AAP leaders had been making critical comments against the Congress in the past but we were looking at the big picture and wanted everybody on board,” said a senior AIC functionary.
The presence of Kharge, who had been leading 19 like-minded opposition parties in the parliament, helped the Congress increase the number of partners from 16 at the June 23 opposition meeting in Patna (hosted by JD-U leader and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar) to 26 at the Bengaluru conclave hosted by the Congress.
As the opposition meeting opened, quick thinking by the Congress managers, who sent out a strong message via Kharge that the party was not hankering for power or the prime minister’s post, further helped convince the allies that the Congress meant business and was committed to the cause of opposition unity.
Another factor which helped the Congress managers portray the Bengaluru meeting as a key strategy session was the detailing that they had gone into over the past few days. The various proposals put up by the party related to functional aspects of the new alliance including setting up an 11-member coordination panel, having a key leader as its convenor, setting up specific sub-panels for different tasks, setting up a secretariat to coordinate the 2024 national campaign from Delhi and the dealing with the touchy subject of seat sharing, impressed the allies and convinced them that they had made a good choice.
Not only this, the Congress power trio was able to pull SP leader and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav who had travelled to Hyderabad after the Patna meeting to hold parleys with BRS leader and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. Finally, said the Congress insiders, the organizational skills of Karnataka state unit chief and deputy chief minister DK Shiv Kumar helped the party to successfully pull off a mega opposition conclave.
While all the guests were impressed with the arrangements at the meeting venue Hotel Taj West End, particularly by the way DKS personally received all of them, both Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal made it a point to thank the Congress for hosting the strategy session.
Also read: "Congress isn't interested in PM post or power:" Kharge clears stand at Bengaluru Opposition meet
