iPhone | iPad
Android
Huawei
The show, premiering on Disney's FX and Hulu on Friday, offers a frightening but moving immersion into the online lives of Gen Z youths
KT APPDOWNLOAD
India: Opposition parties agree to work together to defeat BJP in 2024 elections
Leaders of 17 parties say they plan to meet again next month to formulate a strategy for running joint candidates against BJP's nominees
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, party leader Rahul Gandhi, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav attend a meeting in Patna. — AP
Leaders of 17 Indian opposition parties agreed on Friday to set aside their differences and put up a united fight in next year's national election in an attempt to deny Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a third consecutive term.
They said they plan to meet again next month to formulate a strategy for running joint candidates against the governing BJP's nominees in constituencies across the country. That would prevent the BJP from benefitting from a splintering of votes among multiple opposition candidates.
Nitish Kumar, an opposition leader and chief minister of Bihar state, said the parties will work on a common manifesto stating their economic and other priorities.
Rahul Gandhi, a key leader of the opposition Congress party, accused Modi of weakening the country's democratic institutions and curbing freedom of speech.
"We all stand united. We may have small differences, but we have decided to work together with flexibility and we will protect the ideology we share,” he said.
Several of the opposition leaders said Modi is trying to galvanise Hindu voters by remaining silent on attacks by Hindu nationalists on Muslims and other religious minorities.
Since taking power in 2014, Modi’s party has gained ascendancy in most of the areas in north and central India and is trying to achieve a foothold in the east and south to win a third term.
ALSO READ:
But its recent defeats in elections in northern Himachal Pradesh and southern Karnataka states have raised hopes among opposition parties, many of which are regional groups, of successfully challenging Modi if they work together.
Opposition parties successfully banded together to defeat then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her Congress party in 1977 elections held after she imposed emergency rule in 1975.
“There are many hurdles to cross before a proper opposition united front can take shape,” said Arti Jerath, a political analyst and columnist. “But I think the compulsions for the opposition parties to present a united challenge to Modi are very, very big because in the last four years they have all faced harassment from federal investigative agencies and the BJP has played politics with all of them to break these parties and harass their leaders.”
"If they don’t put up a united challenge to Modi and somehow stop him from coming back, they all know it is going to be the end of the road for them because the BJP will not really allow any of these opposition parties, particularly the Congress, to survive,” he said.
The BJP has dismissed the opposition talks as a “futile exercise".
More news from World
Immediately following the vote, the NDP again sided with the Liberals to pass legislation on capital gains taxes, averting another political crisis
Iwao Hakamada, 88, had been accused of stabbing to death his former boss and family before burning down their home
Prime Minister Modi cancels a trip to Pune, nearly 200km from Mumbai, after authorities declared a red alert due to the rain
Half a million Lebanese estimated to have been displaced as Israel widened its airstrike
The president said this at a televised meeting with security officials on updating the country's nuclear deterrence doctrine
It is reportedly the largest number of executions reported in one day in years in Iraq
Wazed happy with army chief's tentative timeline on vote