India's new opposition alliance rallies around expelled MP

But there are doubts whether grouping can use the scandal to unite against BJP as polls loom

- Nirmala Ganapathy

India's new opposition alliance has thrown its weight behind Ms Mahua Moitra, a banker-turned-lawmaker who was expelled from Parliament over a cash-for-query scandal in the leadup to the general election.

Ms Moitra, a fiery orator from the Trinamool Congress, was expelled when a majority of lawmakers in the Lower House dominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) voted on Dec 8 to remove her.

She admitted to sharing her parliamentary log-in details with Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani, denied but charges that she asked parliamentary questions targeting India's second-richest businessman Gautam Adani at the behest of Mr Hiranandani.

Ms Moitra, a 49-year-old former investment banker at JPMorgan Chase, is accused of receiving cash and gifts from Mr Hiranandani by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who filed a complaint against her.

She has appealed to the Supreme Court against her expulsion.

Still, the scandal, which erupted in October, has hogged news headlines in India for the speed with which Ms Moitra was expelled, and for the details that have emerged about her. The personal lives of politicians are rarely discussed in India.

It has also raised questions over whether the five-month-old Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance - consisting of 28 opposition parties with different ideologies and struggling to unite can use the targeting of Ms Moitra by the BJP to move ahead on a common agenda.

Surrounded by fellow alliance members, including Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, Ms Moitra, who has said the charges were trumped up, warned the BJP that she would continue to fight the party "inside the Parliament and outside; in the gutter and on the streets".