Srinagar: Objecting to the opposition alliance’s name, INDIA, the Jammu and Kashmir unit of the BJP on Thursday said it would file complaints with the police in every district of the Union territory.
Twenty-six opposition parties met in Bengaluru earlier this week and formed an alliance — Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) — to take on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Jammu and Kashmir BJP spokesperson Altaf Thakur alleged that the people of the country have been “cheated” in the garb of forming a grand alliance.
They had formed alliances in 2014 and 2019 as well but the BJP still won the elections and Narendra Modi became the prime minister, he said.
He said that some parties in the opposition alliance such as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) do not have any representation in Parliament. “In the name of the grand alliance, people have been cheated,” Thakur said here.
Thakur said they object to the name of the alliance.
“No party or alliance has the right to name their organisation after the nation. It clearly seems that it is a well thought-out conspiracy of the Congress…. This alliance is not going to work as all these parties have different policies, agendas and voices,” he said.
“We are planning to lodge an FIR in every district of Kashmir (against the opposition parties naming their alliance INDIA),” he said.
The National Conference (NC), which is a part of the opposition alliance, said the BJP’s move was “laughable”.
“This is laughable. It is an opposition alliance and they have named it such. It is an acronym and they have named it very smartly,” NC state spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said.
He said the party was not surprised over the BJP’s move as the national party is on a “weak footing”.
“The BJP is facing things they were not facing a year ago. They are on a weak footing; that is why you will have such kind of things coming from BJP now. I am not surprised that this thing has happened,” Dar said.
PDP spokesperson Najmus Saqib said if the BJP lodges complaints with the police against the opposition alliance, it would be a “binding force” for all the opposition political parties.
“This FIR will not weaken the alliance, but it will only strengthen them. It will act as glue for all the political parties,” he said.
Saqib said the BJP is “rattled” because of the sort of moral high-ground they take on nationalism, while the whole country knows that they had “absolutely no role in the freedom struggle of India”.
“When the BJP is seeing the opposition openly taking that space and openly challenging the BJP on the nationalism front, I think they are rattled. And now you see the questions – they are divided, how will the seats be shared, etc,” he said.
The PDP spokesman said the whole of the country is getting together and is united against the “divisive communal forces”.
