INDIA Janbandhan meet today: Can Opposition bloc patch up the cracks?

Less than two months ago, when the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, was defeated in the Lok Sabha, the Opposition INDIA bloc was ecstatic. As the Narendra Modi government tasted one of its rare failures in Parliament, the Opposition called the Bill’s defeat a victory for democracy.

However, that mood seems to be a distant past now. After the results of the Assembly elections in four states and one Union Territory were announced on May 4, the INDIA camp faced one of its worst blows in recent times.

Also read: Is it the end of INDIA Bloc? Akhilesh's dig at Congress triggers debate

While two major parties opposed to the BJP were kicked out of power in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, the DMK and the TMC, respectively, the alliance itself has been rocked by frictions, major and not so major, raising serious questions over what it would and could do to regroup itself.

While the aftereffects of the recent electoral debacle need to be addressed, the Opposition also has to prepare itself for key parliamentary sessions such as the upcoming Monsoon Session, as the government would try to cash in on its current state to push key bills.

A meet amid turmoil

It is in such a state of affairs that the INDIA bloc allies are meeting on Monday (June 8), their first major huddle after the May state election results. The Congress, the leading ally, has confirmed that 23 parties will be present in what has been branded as the INDIA Janbandhan ('People's Alliance') at the Constitution Club in New Delhi.

According to the Grand-Old Party, the Opposition bloc stands united through its diversity. Veteran Congress leader Jairam Ramesh conceded that some parties have expressed their inability to attend the meeting for “their own reasons”.

“There are some parties who have expressed their inability to attend this particular meeting for their own reasons, even though they have conveyed their strong opposition to the Modi government's policies and actions that are snatching away the right to vote for millions of Indians, assaulting the Constitution daily, attacking Opposition leaders through investigative agencies, seriously damaging the livelihoods of crores of Indians, breaking household budgets through relentless price rise, betraying the hopes and aspirations of lakhs of youth, dampening investment climate, and compromising the national interest by its foreign policy,” Ramesh, MP and general secretary in-charge communications of the Congress, said in a post on X.

Also read: More trouble brews for Mamata as 20 TMC MPs in active talks to join BJP: Report

Tagging him, TMC MP Derek O’Brien said on the social media platform, “Meeting with a common purpose and clear intent. INDIA united. Many parties look forward to meeting in the spirit of camaraderie.”

While the bloc tries to put up a brave face and projects its resolve to chalk out a joint future course of action with an eye on the next general elections in 2029, one cannot overlook its internal challenges.

DMK still upset

One of the major challenges is the DMK. The party has been left fuming after the Congress, its long-term ally, left the state alliance to back actor-politician Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), which went on to form the government in Tamil Nadu.

Even Akhilesh Yadav, leader of another major INDIA ally, Samajwadi Party, took a veiled dig at the Congress after it backed the TVK, saying in a social media post, "We are not the ones who abandon each other in times of difficulty".

The repercussions were felt in New Delhi, too, as the DMK not only sought separate seating arrangements for its MPs in the Lok Sabha but also chose to boycott Monday’s meeting, and one of its senior leaders, TKS Elangovan, even said that the party is out of the INDIA bloc. It looks M K Stalin’s party is in no mood to compromise with the Congress, which it called “betrayer”. Meanwhile, TVK leader Veera Vigneshwaran triggered speculation by alleging that the DMK has an “underground alliance” with the BJP. Such comments are expected to add more to the INDIA bloc’s uneasiness.

TMC facing existential crisis

The TMC, another major regional party with nearly 30 MPs in the Lower House, is also in doldrums. The party has faced a massive rebellion, virtually splitting it in the West Bengal Assembly after the BJP won a mandate in the state for the first time.

Supremo Mamata Banerjee personally lost in her decades-old den of Bhabanipur while her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, the second in command till now, is facing a serious challenge, both within the party ranks and on the streets.

On May 20, he was physically assaulted by some local people in the Sonarpur area of West Bengal when he went to meet the aggrieved family of a TMC worker killed in post-poll violence. It is an ironic turn of events that Mamata and Abhishek will attend the INDIA bloc meeting since the TMC tried to project itself to be superior to the Congress and the two parties fought as contenders in Bengal since the 2011 Assembly elections, despite being on the same anti-BJP platform.

The party’s MPs are reportedly not on the same page, which could lead to more trouble. The supremo herself is perhaps eyeing an entry in the Lok Sabha to keep the flock together in such testing times.

The DMK has 22 MPs in the Lok Sabha, and the TMC has 28. They make a crucial composition of 50 parliamentarians that, if lost, would deal a body blow to the INDIA bloc.

Smaller allies also not happy

Smaller allies such as the Communist Party of India (CPI-M) and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) are also not happy with the Congress’s style of functioning. The CPI-M has conveyed its displeasure over top Congress leaders’ allegation that the Left had colluded with the BJP in Kerala, where the Left Democratic Front lost power in the recent elections.

Also read: Why a Rajya Sabha seat is threatening Congress-JMM alliance in Jharkhand

According to a PTI report, party general secretary MA Baby recently wrote to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge seeking clarification over such remarks by senior Congress leaders.

The JMM was also not amused with the senior ally announcing a candidate “unilaterally” for one of the two Rajya Sabha seats for the upcoming elections to the Upper House from Jharkhand, where the INDIA alliance is in power. The two parties, though, reached a consensus on Sunday (June 7) that each would contest from a seat each, after Chief Minister Hemant Soren met Congress observers Bhupesh Baghel and Ajay Sharma over breakfast.

The Aam Aadmi Party has also publicly distanced itself from the bloc.

INDIA needs to regroup

Against such a background, Monday’s gathering is being seen as an effort to deepen coordination among opposition parties, particularly after the recent Assembly elections and amid evolving political equations in several states. The bloc would have major electoral challenges next year when states such as Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa, Manipur, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat go to polls.

Also read: Why Vijay’s ‘inclusive Cabinet’ could become a new headache for DMK

In the past, the INDIA bloc leadership has got together formally for consultations ahead of Parliament sessions, when opposition parties discussed floor coordination and issues to be jointly raised against the Centre.

Is the bloc’s unity at stake? The upcoming weeks may offer some clues.