P Chidambaram Questions INDIA Alliance Unity, Says Future ‘Not So Bright’
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday voiced concerns about the INDIA bloc, saying he was not sure if the opposition alliance was still intact

P Chidambaram: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday voiced concerns about the INDIA bloc, saying he was not sure if the opposition alliance was still intact.
Khurshid and Yadav analyze the Congress' attempts to revitalize itself in the run-up to last year's Lok Sabha elections -- from the emotionally-tensed "Bharat Jodo Yatra" to the "historic" creation of the INDIA bloc of disparate political forces.
"The future (of INDIA bloc) is not so bright, as Mritunjay Singh Yadav said. He seems to feel that the alliance is still intact, but I am not sure. It is only Salman (Khurshid) who can answer because he was part of the negotiating team for the INDIA bloc. If the alliance is totally intact, I will be very happy. But it shows at the seams that it is frayed," Chidambaram, a Rajya Sabha MP, said.
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He also hoped that the alliance can "still be put together, there's still time".
The former Union finance minister warned that the INDIA bloc was fighting against a "formidable machinery", which must be fought on all fronts.
"In my experience and my reading of history, there has been no political party so formidably organised as the BJP. It's not just another political party. It's a machine behind a machine and the two machines control all the machineries in India.
"From the Election Commission to the lowest police station in the country, they (BJP) are able to control and sometimes capture these institutions. It is a formidable machinery, as much as can be allowed in a democracy," Chidambaram said.
In the book, Khurshid and Yadav look back at the Congress revival bid preceding last year's Lok Sabha elections -- from the sentimentally charged "Bharat Jodo Yatra" to the "historic" coming together of the INDIA bloc of various political forces.
Agreeing with Chidambaram, Khurshid indicated there were questions regarding the INDIA bloc that had to be solved.
Khurshid and Yadav recount how the opposition parties rallied "to defend the idea of an inclusive, pluralistic India".
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Chidambaram said that poll results have shown that no one can undermine elections in India, which “still remains an electoral democracy".
"You can interfere with elections in India. You can tinker with them. But you can't get away with elections. You can't have elections where the ruling party gets away with 98 per cent of the votes... That is not possible in India," Chidambaram said.
The Congress leader added that if the 2029 general elections take a decisive turn to strengthen the BJP, “we are beyond repair”.
“The 2029 elections are critical and must return us to a full-fledged democracy," he said.
Agreeing with Chidambaram, Khurshid indicated there were questions regarding the INDIA bloc that had to be solved.
"We need to address the concerns. The takeaway from Chidambaram's views is that we have to be prepared for a very major battle in 2029. We have to deal with the whole idea of how to get the alliance partners together," the former foreign minister said.
He added that the opposition parties needed to think on a larger scale if they were to "make a massive reversal" in the electoral trends.
"What we have learnt is that we must think on a larger scale. If we only think how many seats we will contest and what will happen once the results are out, we will miss out on the major thing we set out to do, which is to affect a massive reversal of electoral trends in the country," the Congress leader said.
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