Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and Congress leader Kamal Nath on Saturday said that the joint rally of Opposition’s INDIA bloc in Bhopal has been cancelled. After the first INDIA coordination committee meeting on Wednesday, DMK MP TR Balu had announced that the opposition bloc will start its joint campaign in Madhya Pradesh, where elections are due later this year. He had said that the first rally will be held in Bhopal in the first week of October.

However, when Kamal Nath was asked by reporters about the rally, he said, “not happening, it has been cancelled.”

Reacting to the development, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan said that the rally was cancelled due to the public anger over “Sanatana Dharma” remarks by Tamil Nadu Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, whose party DMK is part of the INDIA alliance.

“The people of MP will not tolerate this insult to Sanatana. Understand that our faith has been attacked. This attack will not be tolerated at any cost. There is public anger, hence the rally was cancelled. People will not let this go,” CM Chouhan said.

As many as 28 Opposition parties have come together to form an alliance named INDIA – an abbreviation of Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance. The alliance held its first coordination committee meeting in New Delhi at NCP leader Sharad Pawar’s residence. During the meeting, the Opposition leaders discussed seat-sharing agreement and joint campaigning.

According to reports, the leaders agreed to share seats in Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir but West Bengal became the bone of contention as TMC is less interested in sharing power with the Left and the Congress.

However, sources have told that the party is also not completely ready to share seats in states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh where it has a strong base. While no official reason has been given so far, the sources said, Congress feels it has favourable election prospects in Madhya Pradesh, therefore, it doesn’t want joint rallies of INDIA bloc to start from the state.

The party doesn’t want to look weak or in need of an alliance to take on the BJP in the state ahead of the assembly elections, the sources said.

The INDIA alliance has resolved to fight the Lok Sabha elections together “as far as possible” and it is likely that rallies in states where Congress is strong could take place after the Assembly polls are over. Meanwhile, joint rallies could start from states like Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar and Tamil Nadu where Opposition parties are already in alliances with each other.