New Delhi: Former Union minister and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram Thursday said that in his reading of history there has been no political party as “formidably organised” as the ruling BJP, even as he raised a question mark on the existence of the Opposition’s INDIA bloc.
“I am not sure if the INDIA alliance is intact. If it’s intact, I am very very happy. It can be put together. There’s still time,” Chidamabaram said, speaking at the launch of Contesting Democratic Deficit written by Congress leader Salman Khurshid with Mritunjay Singh Yadav.
Speaking at the event, both Chidambaram and Khurshid stressed on the importance of alliances.
Khurshid, who was a part of the Congress’s alliance committee during the 2024 elections, said the Opposition needs to focus more on building electoral coalitions instead of focusing on respective interests.
He also said the Congress could have won up to 130 seats had it mastered the art of political management.
“The need of the hour is we understand what political management requires. Have we done enough of that? If we had, perhaps we would have done a lot better…We can’t think of a world of tomorrow without an alliance,” Khurshid said, adding that it was important for other parties of the Opposition alliance to recognise Congress as its driving force.
Drawing a contrast between the history of coalition politics in southern and northern India, Chidambaram said alliances cannot be stitched at the time of elections as they require careful nurturing over the preceding 5 years.
Chidambaram, who held the portfolios of Home and Finance in the Congress-led UPA governments, also said while India remains an electoral democracy, the nature of BJP’s domination has made the country resemble a one-party state.
“In my experience, in my reading of history, there has been no political party which is so formidably organised as the BJP. In every department it is formidable. It’s not another political party,” he said.
Chidambaram said the BJP’s machinery will have to be fought on all fronts, and underlined that the 2029 general elections will be decisive in determining whether India marks its return as a “full-fledged democracy”.
“Two machines control all the machinery in India. From the Election Commission of India to the lowest police station in India, they are able to control and sometimes capture these institutions. It is a formidable machinery as much as can be allowed in a democracy and comparable to one state party where the ruling party’s a formidable machinery. I am not saying we are a one state party. We are still an electoral democracy. We are not a full-fledged democracy any more,” Chidambaram said.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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