OPPOSITION parties in India announced a new alliance today to take on the country’s right-wing Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, in next year’s general election.

The new Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance comprises the nation’s previously fractured opposition parties that are aiming to defeat Mr Modi’s polarising government. 

At stake, the alliance says, is the future of India’s multiparty democracy and secular foundations that critics say have been under attack from Mr Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).

The 26-party alliance aims to attack the BJP on the struggling Indian economy, rising unemployment, attacks by Hindu nationalists against the country’s minorities, particularly Muslims, and a shrinking space for dissent and free media.

They will also highlight the deadly ethnic conflict in the north-eastern state of Manipur.

Mr Modi will seek re-election to a third consecutive term in a national vote next year, at a time when India’s global diplomatic reach is rising. 

His party directly controls 10 of the 28 states, is in coalition in four others, and has more than 55 per cent of the seats in the Indian parliament’s lower house.

The alliance, led by the Indian National Congress party that once dominated the country’s politics, includes powerful regional parties that are direct rivals to each other in some states. 

The parties, often beset with ideological differences and personality clashes, have been thrust together as the authoritarian BJP has tightened its grip across India’s democratic institutions.

They also complain they have been the targets of raids and investigations by federal agencies controlled by Mr Modi’s government. Over a dozen of these instances have led to defections of opposition leaders to the BJP, which is sometimes followed by dropped charges. 

The BJP denies its involvement in the cases.

The Congress party has been particularly hit. Its former president, Rahul Gandhi, was disqualified in March from parliament and risks losing his eligibility to run in elections for the next eight years if a court doesn’t overturn his conviction in a defamation case that critics say is politically motivated.

“The main aim is to stand together to safeguard democracy and the constitution,” Mallikarjun Kharge, president of the Congress party, said last week at the end of a two-day meeting of the alliance.

The BJP has dismissed the alliance as a grouping of “self-serving, corrupt, dynastic parties.”

On the same day the alliance was announced, BJP held a convention of its own National Democratic Alliance, along with 37 other parties.