Civil society groups to launch support campaign for INDIA bloc on 2 Oct

With an aim to defeat the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), members of various civil society groups, smaller parties, and a federation of socialists and communists have taken a pledge to support the INDIA bloc in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

To garner the support, civil society group members will launch a campaign from Mahatma Gandhi’s Wardha Ashram on 2 October.

"Jeetega India, Banega Bharat Abhiyaan campaign will begin from Sevagram of Wardha and as many other places as possible on 2nd October. We call upon all defenders of the Republic to join this resolution work in the spirit of equal partnership,” political activist and Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav wrote on X.

Yadav said that focus will be on 100-150 Lok Sabha seats where Opposition candidates lost by narrow margins.

“In these critical times, we stand at a crossroads, where the future of our country is at stake. This is the moment to unite the people of India in defence of our Constitution," said Yadav.

"This is the moment to fuse the energies of all parties that stand with the Constitution with that of people's movements, civil society institutions and social activists. This is the moment to mobilise the public to reclaim our republic,” he added.

Representatives from 50 organisations and 20 states have participated in the discussion and passed a resolution that reads, “The idea of India on which our Republic is founded faces an unprecedented assault." Participants also took a pledge to defend the Constitution.

Yadav said that hate speech and propaganda unleashed by "the ruling dispensation and the troll army" has dismantled the secular state.

Rising unemployment and economic woes were also discussed by the civil society members. At a time when India’s common man is facing recession and inflation, the BJP government has favoured corporate ‘cronies’, claimed the civil society members during the discussion.