BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said there is a complete implosion in the INDIA bloc, with disagreements involving the Congress and the DMK, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the Left parties.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday took a dig at the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, claiming the coalition is in disarray as its constituent parties grapple with electoral losses and internal conflicts. In contrast, the the BJP remains focused on gaining public trust through welfare initiatives and measures to make India a developed country by 2047, it said.At a press conference, BJP MP and spokesperson Sambit Patra referred to the INDIA bloc meeting to say, “Earlier, such meetings used to be held in stadiums. Now it takes place in a room at the Constitution Club.”Countering the charge of “vote theft” through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Mr. Patra said: “SIR happened in Tamil Nadu and Kerala as well. In Tamil Nadu, you [Congress] formed an alliance with another party to be part of the government. The DMK [Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam] is saying that it was not votes, but the alliance itself, which was stolen there.” The Congress-led alliance formed government in Kerala too, he said.“When you lose in West Bengal, you start crying about the SIR,” said Mr. Patra, accusing the alliance of hypocrisy. “In the true sense, the existence of the INDIA alliance has been stolen. Today, none of these political parties has any real presence on the ground. Their integrity has been stolen, and the public has not voted for them because of that,” the BJP leader said.Mr. Patra said following a major electoral defeat, the Trinamool Congress was being torn apart by infighting. The Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav would be wondering if “he would meet the same fate as [Trinamool supremo] Mamata Banerjee”, he said.The BJP leader cited previous remarks of Opposition leaders, such as Ms. Banerjee, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, the DMK’s Udhayanidhi Stalin, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s Pinarayi Vijayan, and Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, either criticising the Congress or Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.“Their meeting will take place in one place, but after leaving the room they will enter a different electoral battlefield and criticise each other... the DMK has even written a letter saying that their seating arrangement [in Lok Sabha] should be changed immediately. They cannot even sit alongside Congress members,” Mr. Patra said. He also targeted the Left stating that it now “remains only within the INDIA alliance”.Mr. Patra alleged that the INDIA bloc meet did not have any concrete agenda, questioning its demand for an all-party meeting. “None of these political parties attended the meeting which was called the last time for women’s empowerment and the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam [women’s reservation Act]. They do not turn up in meetings called during parliamentary sessions,” he said.Seeking to draw a contrast, Mr. Patra said the BJP also organised a meeting on Monday and it was to discuss welfare work done by the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the past 12 years, measures taken to earn public trust, and initiatives to make India a developed country by 2047. Published - June 08, 2026 12:23 pm IST
