INDIA to hold first joint rally in Bhopal, boycott 'biased' TV anchors

The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) will stage its inaugural joint rally in Bhopal, the capital of election-bound Madhya Pradesh, in the first week of October. The focus of the rally will be on rising prices, unemployment, and alleged corruption by the Bharatiya Janata Party government. Subsequent rallies are planned for other parts of the country.

The coordination committee of the INDIA bloc, established during a meeting in Mumbai on 31 August, has been tasked with facilitating seat-sharing discussions. The committee resolved that member parties would engage in state-level talks to reach an agreement as quickly as possible.

Given the urgency to finalise seat-sharing, smaller parties have urged the Congress, the only alliance member with a nationwide presence, to establish a framework and appoint impartial mediators to iron out differences. Negotiations are expected to be particularly challenging in Punjab and Delhi.

The representatives from the 12 parties who attended the meeting also agreed to advocate for a caste census. The issue will later be discussed with the Trinamool Congress, which was absent from the meeting and has a differing viewpoint on the matter.

In a gesture of solidarity with Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who was unable to attend the meeting due to a summons from the Enforcement Directorate, a seat was left vacant. A joint statement later attributed Banerjee's absence to the political vendetta of the BJP.

The INDIA bloc's sub-group on media was authorised by the committee to identify television anchors to be boycotted by alliance representatives. The sub-group has so far listed ten such anchors. The coordination meeting was hosted at the residence of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Chief Sharad Pawar.

Earlier in the day, alliance leaders, including Jairam Ramesh of the Congress and Derek O'Brien of the Trinamool Congress, called on the government to disclose the agenda for the forthcoming five-day special session of Parliament. In response, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi announced a meeting with floor leaders of all political parties on 17 September, just one day before the special session is due to commence.