The Indian Opposition Leaders Challenging Modi in Elections

Swati Gupta
·6 min read
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India’s opposition alliance, launched with much fanfare last year, is heading into next month’s election on the backfoot, struggling to mount a successful challenge against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Known by its acronym I.N.D.I.A. — or Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance — the coalition of more than 20 parties has been beset by defections to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and disagreements over seat sharing. Losses by the Indian National Congress, the biggest party in the alliance, in state elections in December have also cast doubt over its ability to win voters.

Modi is predicting he’ll return to power for a third term in the elections due to kick off on April 19, saying his party and allies will sweep the vote with more than 400 of the 543 parliamentary seats being contested. His popularity has been fueled by a combination of economic progress and Hindu nationalist policies, which resonate in a country where about 80% of the population identify as Hindu.

To counter this, the alliance is focusing its message on India’s unemployment, especially among young people, crony capitalism and corruption.

Here’s a look at some of the key opposition leaders seeking to make a dent into Modi’s popularity.

Rahul Gandhi, 53

A descendant of three generations of prime ministers, Gandhi has been waiting for a decade now to take the top job. He has run against Modi twice in national elections, and lost. He resigned as party president after the Congress’s routing in the 2019 poll. Critics have questioned his leadership abilities, while he’s often portrayed by Modi and the BJP as being out of touch with voters.

Still, the Gandhi name has currency. Opposition parties rallied around him after he was sentenced to jail for making defamatory remarks about the prime minister’s name in 2019. The Supreme Court later suspended his conviction.

Gandhi has tried to change his image in the run up to the elections by making direct appeals to voters. In late 2022, he marched from the southern tip of India right up to Kashmir in the north in a journey spanning 137 days. The effort paid off with the Congress party scoring a victory in state elections in Karnataka in May 2023.

On Sunday, Gandhi ended a 65-day trek across 15 states from the east to the west of the country.

Mallikarjun Kharge, 81

The first non-Gandhi to become president of the Congress party in more than two decades, Kharge was selected in 2022 to the top post. He has been leading talks with regional parties to strengthen the opposition alliance and is now being viewed as a possible prime minister candidate.

Kharge is a member of India’s lowest caste, the Dalits. He started his political career as a student union leader in Karnataka before moving on to become a Congress party lawmaker and government minister. Given his age, though, it’s unclear whether he would play a major role in the party after the elections.

After a party meeting held Tuesday, Kharge announced that the party was adding five commitments to its yet-to-be released manifesto: justice for farmers, youth, women, labor and equal participation for all sections of Indian society. In addition, the party listed 25 guarantees, which include 3 million government jobs, a program to help business start-ups, cash handouts to women and universal healthcare.

Mamata Banerjee, 69

Banerjee is the only woman governing a state in India and as a national opposition leader, she has rarely shied away from public rows with Modi. In the latest dispute after the enactment of a controversial citizenship law, which discriminates against Muslim immigrants, Banerjee said her government will oppose it.

She has also been a vocal critic of other opposition parties, particularly the Congress. Banerjee started her political career with the party in the 1990s and left to start her own group known as the All India Trinamool Congress Party.

In 2011, she pulled off a landslide victory in West Bengal and is now serving her third consecutive term as chief minister. She was one of the main leaders behind the opposition alliance but has since stepped back, saying her party won’t share any seats with the Congress in her West Bengal stronghold.

Akhilesh Yadav, 50

Yadav was India’s youngest chief minister at one point, governing the most populous and politically significant state of Uttar Pradesh. In the past two elections, he’s posed the biggest threat to the BJP in the state, the heartland of India’s Hindi-speaking belt.

With a population of 200 million people, Uttar Pradesh sends 80 lawmakers to the national parliament. The BJP has consolidated its support there under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, a former monk turned politician. In January, Modi opened a controversial Hindu temple on the site of a destroyed 16th century mosque in the state, fulfilling a long-held promise of the party.

Unlike other regional leaders, Yadav and his Samajwadi Party have agreed with the Congress on seat-sharing allocations. Yadav’s party will contest 63 seats in Uttar Pradesh with the Congress targeting the remaining 17. If he’s able to win a substantial number of seats, Yadav will be seen as a major player in the alliance.

M.K. Stalin, 71

The politician’s father named him after the Russian dictator Joseph Stalin, who died four days after he was born. Leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, or DMK, Stalin was elected chief minister in Tamil Nadu in the south in 2021. An atheist, Stalin stands out among political leaders in India who often use religious identity politics to build support.

The DMK prides itself on being a secular party. It faces an energized BJP attempting to make inroads in Tamil Nadu with a Hindu nationalist agenda. In 2019, the BJP failed to win any of the 39 parliament seats from the state.

Tamil Nadu is one of the richest states on a per-capita income basis, and among the biggest contributors of consumption taxes collected by the federal government. However, Tamil Nadu, as well as other opposition-controlled southern states, have complained that they’re not receiving a fair share of their revenue contribution.

Pinarayi Vijayan, 78

Voters in the southern state of Kerala have oftern switched between the Congress party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) every five years. A stalwart of the latter, Vijayan though won a second term as chief minister — due in part to his development programs and his ability to act swiftly in times of crisis, be it the pandemic or cyclones.

Kerala is economically strong, with a population that’s the most literate in the country. The BJP’s Hindu-first strategy has failed to resonate with voters there. While Vijayan’s Kerala unit hasn’t joined the alliance, he’s been a vocal critic of the government’s dealings with the southern states.

(Updated with comment in the Mallikarjun Kharge sub-section)

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