New Delhi [India]: After senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram publicly raised doubts about the future of the INDIA bloc, BJP leaders launched sharp criticisms, calling the alliance opportunistic and fractured.
BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla on Friday accused the INDIA alliance of being built on selfish motives rather than ideological commitment. He claimed the alliance follows a “kushti-dosti” (wrestling-friendship) model, where parties compete at the state level but cooperate in Delhi for convenience.
“Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram has made the INDI alliance and the Congress party face the truth. The INDI alliance was formed only out of selfishness. Congress party face the truth. INDI alliance has been formed only for selfishness… Theirs is a ‘kushti-dosti’ model, Left-Congress will wrestle in Kerala and be friends in Delhi, TMC-Congress will wrestle in Bengal and be friends in Delhi… This is not an alliance of commitment but an alliance of convenience, the public has rejected them and so it has become a tukde-tukde alliance,” Poonawalla told ANI.
Kerala BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar also weighed in, describing the opposition alliance as a loosely connected group driven by corruption and their dislike of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The BJP is a formidable party because it believes in strong values/principles of IndiaFirst and cares for all Indians – and so has the support of most Indians. INDI alliance is a motley collection of parties, brought together by only their love for corruption and exploitation and fear/hatred of Narendra Modi ji,” Rajeev Chandrasekhar posted on X.
These reactions follow Chidambaram’s own candid remarks made during a book launch in Delhi, where he admitted that the INDIA bloc was “frayed at the seams”, though he still held hope for its revival.
“The future is not so bright as Mr Mritunjay Singh Yadav said. He seemed to feel that the India alliance is still intact. I’m not sure. It’s only Salman can answer, because he was part of the negotiating team for the India alliance. If the India alliance is intact, I’m very, very happy. But it shows, it’s at the seams, it’s frayed. It can be put together, there’s still time,” Chidambaram said.
Chidambaram was speaking at the launch of the book Contesting Democratic Deficit: An Inside Story of the 2024 Elections by Salman Khurshid and Mritunjay Singh Yadav at the India International Centre in the capital.
He further warned about the dominance of the BJP, calling it more than a political party — a formidable machine that must be challenged on all fronts.
“In my experience and reading of history, there has been no political party as formidably organised as the BJP. In every department, it’s formidable. It’s not another political party. It’s a machine behind which it’s a machine, and the two machines control all the machinery of India, from the Election Commission of India to the lowest police station in India; they are able to control or sometimes capture these institutions. This is a formidable missionary you’re fighting. It’s not another political party. This formidable missionary must be fought on all fronts,” he said.
Chidambaram concluded by stressing the importance of the 2029 general elections, which he believes could either entrench the BJP’s dominance or restore Indian democracy.
“As the author has described from a ringside view, the difficulty of fighting this formidable missionary. That’s the message I get from the book. So the next elections, we don’t know where it will go. 2029 elections may make a decisive turn to strengthen this formidable missionary and then we are beyond repair or the 2029 elections must return us to a full-fledged democracy. The 2029 elections are critical,” he said.