Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah delivered a stark assessment of the opposition INDIA bloc on December 6, 2025, declaring it “on life support” and openly blaming the alliance’s internal dysfunction for driving Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar back into the BJP-led NDA. Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, the National Conference leader recounted a pivotal 2023 meeting where Kumar, then a key architect of the opposition grouping, was effectively humiliated over the convenor’s post.

“I was part of that meeting where we were discussing whether we should make him the convenor of the INDIA bloc. And we effectively, without taking names, suggested, with Nitish Kumar sitting in the meeting, that another leader would have the power of veto,” Abdullah said. He argued that the snub pushed Kumar away, contributing to his eventual switch ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the subsequent collapse of the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, where the NDA swept to power in 2025 with the JD(U) as a crucial partner.

Abdullah warned that the bloc risks further erosion, pointing to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s absence from the Bihar alliance as evidence of growing cracks. “Hypothetically, if tomorrow they were to up and leave the INDIA bloc at the national level, who’s at fault?” he asked, urging the alliance to function cohesively or admit it is merely a collection of state-specific partnerships rather than a genuine national front.

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The J&K CM contrasted the BJP’s relentless, round-the-clock election machinery with the opposition’s lacklustre commitment, accusing INDIA partners of fighting “as if we don’t care.” “The BJP fought and contested elections like their lives depended on them, whereas we fight as if we don’t care,” he said, adding that the opposition remains stuck in a 24×7 cycle of infighting and convenience rather than unified strategy.

BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla seized on the remarks, calling them a “mirror of reality” and a “reality check” for the alliance. “Omar Abdullah has shown how the INDI alliance pushed out Nitish Kumar and how the Mahagathbandhan was unfair even to allies like the JMM,” he said, predicting further desertions and branding the bloc an “alliance of convenience” built on “commission, corruption, and ambition.”

With the Congress and other constituents yet to respond formally, Abdullah’s candid critique—delivered by a sitting INDIA-bloc chief minister—has intensified questions about the opposition’s viability ahead of crucial state elections in 2026 and the next general election cycle.

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