India’s opposition parties team up to challenge Modi’s Hindu nationalist party in 2024 elections

By ASHOK SHARMA
Associated Press

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s splintered opposition parties have decided to contest the 2024 national elections in their bid to unseat Prime Minister Narendra Modi and prevent his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party from achieving a third straight win. The 26 opposition parties on Friday decided to work out seat-sharing arrangements in different states in “a collaborative spirit” to avoid splitting votes in favor of Modi’s party. India’s national elections are to be held around May next year. Sambit Patra, a BJP spokesman, slammed the opposition parties and said their alliance was only a show of unity. Modi became India’s prime minister in 2014 and won a second term for his party in 2019 with an easy victory against the fractured opposition.