With all opposition parties uniting, it’s impossible to defeat the INDIA alliance: Rahul Gandhi

“The most important thing to understand is that this stage represents 60 percent of the Indian population. If the parties on the stage unite, it is impossible for the BJP to win the election. So, the task in front of us is to come together in the most efficient way possible,” Rahul Gandhi said at a joint media conference of the INDIA alliance after its third conclave here.

Stating that the alliance has taken “two big steps” in its two-day meeting at the country’s commercial capital, Gandhi said, “The first step is we have formed a coordination committee and committees under that committee."

“And the second step is we have taken a decision that we will expedite all seat-sharing discussions and decisions and make them happen as soon as possible,” said the former Congress president.

Alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was extracting money from the country’s poor people and transferring it to a limited few, Gandhi said the INDIA alliance would come up with an alternative development path.

“The Prime Minister and the BJP are a nexus of corruption and that is the first thing that the INDIA alliance is going to demonstrate and prove. The idea behind Prime Minister Modi’s government is to extract money from the poor people of this country and transfer it to a limited few and so, we are going to propose a clear development path," Gandhi said.

“We are going to put together a clear set of ideas that will once again involve the poor people, the farmers, the kisans, the workers in the progress of this country,” he said.

Gandhi said that after the three meetings of the anti-BJP parties, he could say with confidence that the conclaves helped build a “huge amount of rapport among all the leaders” in ensuring “all of us work together as one”.

“I can see that there is flexibility among all the leaders, in the way we are approaching things. There are differences of course, but I am extremely impressed by the way those differences are minimised and ironed out,” he said.

Gandhi also alleged that the media in the country have been “chained” and averred that the INDIA alliance was working to “free you from your chains”.

The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A), comprising 26 anti-BJP parties, Friday announced a 14-member Central Coordination Committee and a 19-member campaign committee at the conclusion of its two-day meeting in Mumbai.

The bloc, which earlier met in Patna and Bengaluru, held its third meeting in the country’s commercial capital, striving to give a formal shape to the alliance well in time for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The leaders of the participating parties also constituted three other panels-working groups for social media, media, and research.

The bloc resolved to contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha election together 'as far as possible' and said that seat-sharing arrangements in different states would be initiated immediately.

In a statement issued on the concluding day of the two-day meeting, the alliance said. "We, the INDIA parties, hereby resolve to contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections together as far as possible. Seat-sharing arrangements in different states will be initiated immediately and concluded at the earliest in a collaborative spirit of give-and-take."

The statement read, "We, the INDIA parties, hereby resolve to organise public rallies at the earliest in different parts of the country on issues of public concern and importance.

It said, "We, the INDIA parties, hereby resolve to coordinate our respective communications and media strategies and campaigns with the theme Judega Bharat, Jeetega India in different languages."

[With UNI inputs]