The New Indian Express ·
Three years on, INDIA bloc’s common ground grows harder to find
Three years after the Opposition came together with an ambitious plan to turn the INDIA bloc into a cohesive electoral force, the grouping is once again confronting the limits of an alliance held together largely by state-level arrangements.
The bloc’s 14-member coordination committee, envisaged as its highest decision-making body, met only once, on September 13, 2023, at the residence of NCP founder Sharad Pawar in Delhi. It never met again.
The committee was tasked with, among other things, coordinating campaigns and expediting seat-sharing talks. But even its first meeting could not set the mechanism in motion. A proposed joint rally in Bhopal was dropped, while negotiations over seat-sharing dragged on for months.
