Chidambaram Sounds Alarm on INDIA Bloc&rsquo;s Fragility, Hails BJP as Unmatched Political Machine
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 In a candid and deeply reflective address at the India International Centre in New Delhi, senior Congress leader and former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram offered a stark appraisal of the current political landscape, lauding the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as an unparalleled organisational force while expressing grave concerns over the coherence of the opposition&rsquo;s INDIA bloc.
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Speaking at the launch of&nbsp;Contesting Democratic Deficit: An Inside Story of the 2024 Elections, co-authored by Salman Khurshid and Mrityunjay Singh Yadav, Chidambaram acknowledged what many in the opposition have been reluctant to admit publicly &mdash; that the INDIA alliance appears to be faltering under internal strains.
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&ldquo;I would be very happy if the INDIA bloc were completely intact &mdash; but it seems frail,&rdquo; Chidambaram remarked, adding with a note of cautious optimism, &ldquo;It can be put together. There is still time. There are still events which will unfold.&rdquo;
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While Khurshid and Yadav&rsquo;s book reflects optimism about the alliance&rsquo;s resilience, Chidambaram struck a more sceptical tone. &ldquo;The future is not as bright as Mr Mrityunjay Singh Yadav suggests. He feels the INDIA alliance is still intact. I am not sure. Maybe Salman [Khurshid] can answer, as he was part of the negotiating team,&rdquo; he said, underscoring the uncertainty that looms over the opposition formation.
The Congress veteran&rsquo;s remarks come at a critical juncture, with the opposition struggling to project a unified front against the BJP ahead of future electoral battles. Chidambaram's words were less a critique and more a call for introspection &mdash; a senior statesman&rsquo;s appeal for course correction before it's too late.
But it was his assessment of the BJP that drew particular attention. In perhaps his most trenchant observation, Chidambaram characterised the ruling party as no ordinary political force. &ldquo;In my experience and reading of history, there has been no political party as formidably organised as the BJP. In every department, it&rsquo;s formidable. It&rsquo;s not just another political party &mdash; it&rsquo;s a machine, and behind that machine is another machine, and together they control all the machinery of India,&rdquo; he stated.
He did not mince words in suggesting that this dual machinery &mdash; political and institutional &mdash; exercises considerable sway over institutions ranging from the Election Commission to local police stations. This, he warned, has tilted the democratic playing field in a manner unseen in recent memory.
&ldquo;We are not fighting a party &mdash; we are fighting a formidable missionary,&rdquo; Chidambaram declared, insisting that the INDIA alliance must meet the BJP&rsquo;s challenge across all fronts: organisational, ideological, and institutional.
Turning his gaze to the future, Chidambaram spoke of the 2029 general elections with a sense of historical gravity. &ldquo;These elections may either consolidate this formidable missionary beyond repair or return India to a full-fledged democracy. The 2029 elections are critical,&rdquo; he asserted, underscoring the long-term stakes of current political trends.
In laying bare both the inner contradictions of the INDIA bloc and the hegemonic dominance of the BJP, Chidambaram has perhaps provided the most unsparing internal diagnosis of the opposition&rsquo;s position to date. Whether his warnings serve as a catalyst for realignment or go unheeded remains to be seen.
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Calls BJP a 'formidable machine', urges unity in opposition ahead of critical 2029 polls

Chidambaram Warns of INDIA Bloc’s Fragility

Calls BJP a 'formidable machine', urges unity in opposition ahead of critical 2029 polls

May 16, 2025 | 19:54 IST