New Delhi: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday slammed the Opposition bloc for naming the alliance INDIA, saying that "We need to free ourselves from colonial legacies."
During today's mega Opposition meeting in Bengaluru, Congress proposed the alliance to be called 'INDIA' which stands for 'Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance.'
Targetting the name, Assam CM tweeted, "Our civilisational conflict is pivoted around India and Bharat. The British named our country as India. We must strive to free ourselves from colonial legacies."
"Our forefathers fought for Bharat, and we will continue to work for Bharat," Sarma added.
Notably, on Tuesday, the opposition parties held a meeting in Bengaluru, while the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) met in the national capital, to discuss strategy ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The renaming of the alliance comes after a united Opposition of 26 "like-minded" parties met in the southern city with former Congress president Sonia Gandhi in attendance.
Several parties, including the MDMK, KDMK, VCK, RSP, Forward Bloc, IUML, Kerala Congress (Joseph), and Kerala Congress (Mani), are among those joining the second opposition meeting. The 24 Opposition parties collectively hold around 150 Lok Sabha seats.
The first meeting of the united Opposition was held on June 23.
Meanwhile, the BJP-led NDA is holding deliberations with 37 of its partners in the National Democratic Front for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections at a mega meeting in Delhi.
BJP president JP Nadda said that the increase in the number of NDA partners from 24 in 1998 to 38 in 2023 showed the scale of expansion of the alliance and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity.