Mandate rebukes BJP, INDIA bloc will continue its fight against ‘fascist rule’: Kharge

NEW DELHI: The Opposition INDIA bloc, for the time being, will sit in the Opposition in the 18th Lok Sabha, but the grouping will take appropriate steps at the appropriate time to realise the people’s desire not to be ruled by the BJP, said Congress chief Mallikarjn Kharge on Wednesday.

After the Opposition alliance’s first meeting that went on for nearly two hours after the Lok Sabha poll results, which was seen as the alliance keeping its options open and not staking claim at government formation for now, he said the Opposition leaders resolved to continue their fight against the “fascist rule” of the BJP led by Narendra Modi even as they thanked the people for their overwhelming support to the INDIA bloc.

“We will take appropriate steps at the appropriate time to realise people’s desire not to be ruled by the BJP’s government,” Kharge said while reading out a statement adopted by all the alliance constituents after the deliberations at his residence.

Kharge, flanked by former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, NCP (SCP) president Sharad Pawar, TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee and other leaders of the INDIA bloc, said the decision has been taken by all constituents of the INDIA bloc in one voice.

The Congress president had convened the meeting to discuss the political situation and the election results, explore any possibility of government formation and whether to reach out to their old partners Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu.

He also said that the Opposition would continue to work together and would definitely stand by the promises made to the people and keep them.

“The constituents of the INDIA bloc thank the people of India for their overwhelming support. The people’s mandate has been a befitting reply to the BJP and their politics of hate, corruption and deprivation,” Kharge said.

“This is a mandate in defence of the Constitution of India, and against price rise, unemployment and crony capitalism and also to save democracy,” Kharge added.

Besides Kharge, top Congress leaders, including Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, former party chief Rahul Gandhi and AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also attended the meeting.

Leaders attending the meeting included Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin and T R Baalu of the DMK, Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren and Kalpana Soren of the JMM, Sharad Pawar and Supriya Sule of the NCP-SCP, Akhilesh Yadav and Ram Gopal Yadav (SP), Abhishek Banerjee (TMC), Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), Sanjay Raut and Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena-UBT), Omar Abdullah (JKNC), Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), D Raja (CPI), Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha (AAP) and N K Premchandran (RSP).

In a joint statement issued after the key meeting, India bloc constituents thanked people of India for an overwhelming support.

In his remarks at the meeting, Kharge welcomed the INDIA bloc partners and said, “We fought well, fought unitedly, fought resolutely”.

While the BJP won 240 seats on its own and the Congress emerged as the second largest party with 99 seats, the NDA has the majority with 293 seats. The opposition alliance has 234 seats.

At the beginning of the INDIA bloc strategy session held at his home, Kharge came up with an open invitation. “The INDIA alliance welcomes all parties which share its fundamental commitment to the values enshrined in the Preamble to our Constitution and to its many provisions for economic, social and political justice,’’ the Congress president said. It was an indirect and thinly veiled reference to the TDP and JD(U) leaders.

“The mandate is decisively against Mr Modi, against him and the substance and style of his politics. It is a huge political loss for him personally apart from being a clear moral defeat as well. However, he is determined to subvert the will of the people,’’ Kharge said while Sonia Gandhi was sitting by his side.