In the second meeting of the Opposition parties on Tuesday in Bengaluru, 26 opposition parties have joined hands and named their alliance as INDIA, which stands for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance to take on the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.

The renaming of the UPA i.e., United Progressive Alliance to INDIA was reportedly proposed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

The first day of the meeting was all about discussions such as all political parties were asked to suggest names for the alliance, followed by a dinner.

The announcement was made by President of the Congress, Mallikarjun Kharge.

“This was a very important meeting to save democracy and the Constitution in the interest of the people of the country... With one voice, the leaders of all 26 parties supported the resolution adopted today,” said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in the meeting.

"Our alliance will be called Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) and this is a great achievement,” he added.

Second, the alliance will be setting up an 11-member coordination committee shortly.

Thirdly, he said that the next opposition meeting will be held in Mumbai in which the names of the 11 panel members will be discussed, finalised and announced, the date of which will be announced soon.

Fourthly, a secretariat shall be set up for campaign management in Delhi and other committees for specific purposes shall be set-up.

Fiftly, a joint statement of the meeting has been approved today.

Other prominent leaders who participated in the meeting included former Congress presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary D. Raja, and CPI (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury.

The first Opposition meeting was held in Patna on June 23 where only leaders of 15 parties attended it.

Speaking of the disagreements within the Opposition alliance itself, Kharge said, “There are some differences between us, but we have put that behind... We are together in the interest of the nation. We will fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections unitedly and succeed. Now our aim is to highlight the failures of the Narendra Modi-led government.”

(With inputs from The Hindu)