Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday questioned the survival of the INDIA bloc, expressing doubts as to whether the opposition alliance was still intact. He spoke at the release of Contesting Democratic Deficit, a book written by Salman Khurshid and Mritunjay Singh Yadav.
Chidambaram added that the state of the alliance seemed to be uncertain. “The future (of INDIA bloc) is not so bright, as quoted by Mritunjay Singh Yadav. He appears to feel that the alliance is intact, but I am not so sure. Only Salman (Khurshid) can reply because he was in the negotiating team of the INDIA bloc. If the alliance is entirely intact, I will be very happy. But it appears to be frayed,” he said.
The MP in the Rajya Sabha also stated that there was still an opportunity to form the alliance. “It can still be put together, there’s still time,” he further added.
Speaking about the ruling party, Chidambaram said the INDIA alliance was up against a potent organisational machinery and had to act accordingly. “In my career and my study of history, there has been no political party so well-organised as the BJP. It’s not a political party like the others. It’s a machine behind a machine and the two machines dictate all the machineries in India.”.
“From the Election Commission to the most inferior police station in the nation, they (BJP) can wield and at times seize these institutions. It is a strong machinery, as much as one can permit in a democracy,” he added.
The Khurshid and Yadav book chronicles attempts to revive the Congress prior to the previous Lok Sabha elections, such as the Bharat Jodo Yatra and the creation of the INDIA block that united various political factions. It emphasizes how opposition forces united “to defend the idea of an inclusive, pluralistic India”.
Chidambaram also asserted that elections in India could be interfered with to a certain degree, but not wholly manipulated. “You can meddle with elections in India. You can mess around with them. But you can’t get away with elections. You can’t have elections where the party in power gets away with 98 per cent of the votes. That is impossible in India,” he stated.
He also expressed the significance of the upcoming general elections. “The 2029 elections are crucial and have to bring us back to a level playing field democracy. If the 2029 general elections decisively tilt towards making the BJP stronger, we are irreparable,” Chidambaram said.
Concurring with Chidambaram, Khurshid added that the INDIA bloc must attend to internal problems. “We have to attend to the issues. The takeaway from Chidambaram’s comments is that we have to be ready for a very big fight in 2029. We have to sort out the entire concept of how to bring alliance partners together,” he remarked.
On the other hand, the BJP too reacted to Chidambaram’s remarks that successive defeats have left the Congress battered. “P Chidambaram used the term “formidable” six times to refer to the BJP and the BJP poll machinery in a short speech that lasted just under three minutes. The successive defeats have left the Congress battered, as is Pakistan after its bases were bombed by the Indian Air Force,” BJP’s Amit Malviya tweeted.
Further, BJP stalwart Shehzad Poonawalla referred to the INDIA alliance as a “tukde-tukde alliance.” “The INDI alliance has been created only due to selfishness. Theirs is a ‘kushti-dosti’ model, Left-Congress will fight in Kerala and be friends in Delhi, TMC-Congress will fight in Bengal and be friends in Delhi. This is not a committed alliance but a convenience alliance, people have rejected them and hence it has turned into a tukde-tukde alliance.”
May 25, 2025