With less than a year to go for general elections, the ruling coalition at the Centre and the united opposition have made their fighting approach clear. Shortly after an alliance of 26 opposition parties — christened as Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A) — expressed its resolve to fight collectively against the ruling coalition, BJP stalwart Narendra Modi placed his thrust on the rejuvenation of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), terming it to be a coalition of contributions and not compulsions. Though every political move in the run-up to general elections is going to be significant hereon, the steps taken by the united opposition and the ruling coalition are, at best, symbolic expressions of strength. For the opposition, the participation swelled from 16 parties in Patna to 26 parties in Bengaluru, but the stark differences, seat-sharing arrangements, leadership considerations, and details are yet to be chalked out during the Mumbai meeting. If anything, the meeting in Bengaluru was just an initial expression of solidarity on the part of highly fragmented opposition parties. The devil actually lies in detail, and one has to wait and watch for it. However, there is no doubt that an optics of strength has been churned out — strong enough to spark apprehension in the NDA camp. The BJP’s indication of revamping the 25-year-old NDA seems more like a counter response to the opposition's show of strength. It may be aimed at negating a perception of the BJP being made aloof against a range of prominent opposition parties. In the 2019 general elections, the BJP had crossed the 300-mark on its own, with other parties of the coalition adding merely 28 seats. In fact, the top five parties of the NDA claimed 322 of the 329 seats that the alliance won. This goes on to reflect how symbolic the participation of non-BJP allies in the victory of NDA had been. It won’t be wrong to say that the dominance and sense of self-sufficiency of the BJP triggered the seclusion of other allies — leading to weakening of the NDA as a collective force. While the top BJP leaders have termed the new I.N.D.I.A alliance to be “opportunistic”, they also have to reflect upon how representative the NDA itself is. The present courting of the 37 non-BJP parties — 25 of which had failed to contribute even a single seat in 2019 Lok Sabha elections — appears more to be a case of political opportunism than an effort to incorporate popular representation. If the opposition alliance has to go a long way in creasing out internal differences, the uphill task of making NDA more representative is no less daunting for the BJP. If political differences of leaders are to be set aside, I.N.D.I.A appears to represent a considerably large and variegated set of voters. In hindsight, the gulf between the combined vote percentage of the I.N.D.I.A alliance and that of the NDA may not be very significant. What is encouraging to see is the trend of wide-ranging coalitions once again coming to the fore from both sides. This sits well with the functioning of a democracy as vibrant as India. The more the power is dispersed, the more voices will be considered in the running of the country, though stability may spring up as a question. Overall, the present shift in the trend can be said to be heading towards a balance. Notably, the underlying agenda that came out of the opposition meeting in Bengaluru, as emphasised by various opposition leaders, is to “save” India. The cleverly crafted acronym for the alliance, which has now attracted legal charges, perfectly syncs with their stated agenda. It may be debatable whether the name of the country should be evoked, through word play or whatever means, to represent a political endeavour! However, leaving the acronym debate aside for legal and moral interpretations, it is certain that an onerous challenge lies ahead of the I.N.D.I.A alliance. The challenge is equally intense for the BJP-led NDA, which hardly leaves any stone unturned for political battles, definitely not if the battle happens to be as grand as general elections.