After Congress leader P Chidambaram expressed doubts about the INDIA bloc, BJP leader Shehzad Poonawalla on Friday said that there is a “kushti-dosti” model in the INDIA bloc, adding that the alliance was formed only for “selfishness.”
“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 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajeev Chandrasekhar called the opposition alliance a “motley collection of parties” and that they came together only because of their “love for corruption.”
“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.
This comes after Congress leader P Chidambaram expressed doubts about the future of the INDIA bloc, saying that it is frayed at the seams. However, he added that the bloc could still be saved with time.
“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 book launch of Contesting Democratic Deficit: An Inside Story of the 2024 Elections by Salman Khurshid and Mritunjay Singh Yadav at the India International Centre in the national capital.
Chidambaram described the BJP as not another political party but an exceptionally well-organised political force and stressed that it must be challenged on multiple fronts to challenge its dominance.
“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 stressed the importance of the 2029 elections, saying that they could either strengthen the BJP’s political machinery or restore full-fledged 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.