New Delhi: Former Union Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday said that the Opposition’s INDIA bloc is ‘frail’, underlining the lack of coordination among alliance partners, The Indian Express reported.
Speaking at the launch of a book at the India International Centre in Delhi here, Chidambaram made it clear that he was ‘not sure’ about whether the alliance was ‘ still intact’.
The book ‘Contesting Democratic Deficit’ was co-authored by former Union Minister Salman Khurshid with Mritunjay Singh Yadav.
‘The future is not so bright as Mr Mritunjay Singh Yadav (co-author of the book) says. He seems to feel that the INDIA alliance is still intact. I am not sure. Maybe Salman (Khurshid) can answer because he was part of the negotiating team of the INDIA alliance. If the INDIA alliance is totally intact, I am very very happy, but it shows… seems it is frail. It can be put together. There is still time. There are still events which will unfold,’ Chidambaram was quoted as saying.
Referencing his ‘long experiences ‘of alliance politics back home in Tamil Nadu, Chidambaram said alliance could not be ‘ stitched’ at the time of polls, requiring to be nursed for five years.
He also cited the example of Tamil Nadu and Kerala for better working alliance ‘Only two states in which the alliance has worked consistently. They may have lost an election or won. The alliances that have been nursed through defeat and victory are in Kerala and Tamil Nadu’.
The Congress leader made it clear that there is no political party capable of taking on the ‘formidable BJP machinery’, adding that the saffron party’s every department is ‘formidable’: ‘It is a machine behind which is a machine, and the two machines control all machinery in India. From EC to the lowest police station in India, they are able to control and sometimes capture these institutions.’