published by, Kavya Mishra
Last Update: July 19, 2023, 21:03 IST
At least 11 more parties, with a total of 91 members in the parliament, have opted to remain neutral. (ANI file photo)
Three fence-sitters rule sizable states – Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha, which together send 63 members to the Lok Sabha – where the Congress or other opposition parties have been marginalised.
While 65 parties have joined the coalition led by either the BJP or the Congress, there are at least 11 more parties with a total of 91 members in Parliament who have opted to remain neutral for the time being in the high-risk general elections due next year. .
Three fence-sitters rule sizable states – Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha, which together send 63 members to the Lok Sabha – where the Congress or other opposition parties have been marginalised.
The Congress and 25 other opposition parties on Tuesday unveiled the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), which now has 39 parties, to take on the BJP-led NDA.
The parties which are not part of any group are: YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), Bahujan Samaj Party, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), Janata Dal (Secular), Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) and SAD (Mann). The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), which won the Andhra Pradesh elections in 2019, and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), which has ruled Odisha since 2000, voted largely in favor of a BJP-led government in Parliament. Voted in
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which has been ruling Telangana since it was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014, had earlier this year taken the lead in exploring the possibility of an opposition alliance, but is not a part of the newly formed alliance.
The Mayawati-led BSP, which has nine members in the Lok Sabha, is also out of the opposition alliance.
The BSP, which ruled Uttar Pradesh four times, has announced that it will go it alone in next year’s Lok Sabha polls and assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.
“We have to ensure that there is a ‘helpless’ (forced) government at the Center and not a strong government. Only this will ensure that the interests of the poor, dalits, tribals, oppressed and minorities are upheld even if the BSP does not come to power,” Mayawati said in a statement here.
BJD supremo and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik criticized the BJP for not providing adequate support to the state in central schemes and asked party MPs to raise the issue vigorously in the monsoon session of Parliament beginning on Thursday.
Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM, which has also been kept out of the opposition alliance, said the party was being treated like a “political pariah”.
AIMIM has a large presence in Hyderabad and adjoining areas of Telangana and is looking to expand to states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Karnataka.
AIMIM spokesperson Waris Pathan hit out at the opposition alliance, saying leaders like Nitish Kumar, Uddhav Thackeray and Mehbooba Mufti, who had earlier joined hands with the BJP, were part of the gathering in Bengaluru, but AIMIM was also functioning. Defeating the BJP was being ignored.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI,