Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Friday clarified that the INDI alliance which comprises 27 political parties is made for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and not for assembly elections in any state. The Congress general secretary made the statement during his address to a press conference at Rampurhat in West Bengal's Birbhum district.
"INDI alliance is for the general elections and not for assembly polls of West Bengal or Maharashtra or any other state," he said, adding that in Maharashtra, Congress, NCP, and Shiv Sena will collaborate for the assembly polls, there won't be any alliance among INDIA partners for the elections in other states.
"For Lok Sabha, the INDIA alliance of 27 parties is there and will fight together," he stated.
Following Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led JD(U)'s departure from the opposition bloc, reducing it to a 27-party coalition, the Congress General Secretary then emphasized the significance of Rahul Gandhi-led “Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra” in the lead-up to the 2024 elections. He clarified that while the Yatra is a political initiative, it is not an election campaign.
Congress is the lone political party that never extended its support to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) either in a direct or indirect manner, said Jairam Ramesh while claiming that the INDIA bloc has been made to defeat BJP and RSS’s ideology.
Highlighting the significance Nyay Yatra holds for the 2024 polls, he added, "This is a very important yatra as new energy and strength have been infused in the Congress organisation. We firmly believe that this Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will be very beneficial in the context of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.”
He affirmed that Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly said that this Yatra is being held from a political perspective and not with an eye on the elections.
"We look at it as a battle of ideologies," he said, asserting that the Yatra, which began from ethnic strife-torn Manipur and is scheduled to end in Maharashtra on March 20 after traversing several states, was receiving huge response from people of all walks of life.
Ramesh said that the Yatra, which was to resume at 8 am on Friday from West Bengal, started two and half hours late as the state school board class 10 examination had commenced.
"The Murshidabad and Birbhum administration said there should not be any impediment to the examination process, so keeping that in mind, Rahul ji decided to start the yatra from 10.30 am," he said, adding that Congress did not want to dishonour the rules and regulations.
Alleging that political dictatorship has become a reality in the country, he said that Rahul Gandhi has spoken of justice to women, youths, workers, farmers, and equity, for which the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra is being held. The Congress was resolved to make the INDIA alliance stronger in the TMC-ruled West Bengal and all other states, he said on the last day of the Yatra in West Bengal.
The opposition bloc INDIA suffered a setback when TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee said that her party will fight the elections alone in West Bengal, but Ramesh has remained optimistic about clinching a "mutually acceptable" seat-sharing arrangement with her party.
The Congress, CPI(M)-led Left Front and the TMC are constituents of the INDIA bloc, but the TMC and the CPI(M) have expressed strong reservations about having any truck with each other in West Bengal.
The Yatra was joined by the CPI(M) in Bengal with its state secretary Mohammed Salim, central committee member Sujan Chakraborty, and other leaders participating in it.
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