NEW DELHI: The naming of the group of 26 opposition parties as Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) in Bengaluru on Tuesday has given rise to confusion. After a couple of parties wrote D for Democratic, the BJP took a dig at the opposition parties and asked whether D stood for Developmental or Democratic.
Talking to media persons after the meeting of the opposition parties, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said they had decided on the name of the new grouping. The old name was UPA (United Progressive Alliance) while the new one is Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).
Soon after the announcement, alliance partners such as Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) and Lalu Prasad-headed Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) tweeted the new name of INDIA. However, they spelt D for Democratic instead of Developmental.
Several people on social media followed suit and spelt D in INDIA as Democratic.
This led the BJP to take a dig at the opposition parties.
BJP IT Cell head and co-in-charge of West Bengal Amit Malviya, in a tweet, said, “D stands for Democratic or Developmental? Those who can’t arrive at a consensus on something as simple and existential as this, are hoping to run the country. The joke is on those who take this motley group of self serving political heirlooms seriously.”
In fact, RJD had even spelt democratic wrongly as “democractly” and later deleted the tweet.
Malviya said, “Opposition camp is a circus. Every party is planting news with the media on how their leader had a role in the new name. RJD upstaged the formal announcement and tweeted, to find later that the name had been changed. There is also a rush to take credit for who bought AAP and Congress together, Nitish or Mamata? If this is the extent of credit seeking, imagine the rent seeking, if they ever came to power.”
This alliance is a joke, he added.
