New Delhi, Sep 30 (IANS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday said that the INDIA bloc meeting over the Special Intensive Review (SIR) issue is just another “excuse” for the Congress to “relaunch” Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi.
This came as the INDIA bloc is meeting in New Delhi’s Constitution Club, where opposition parties are discussing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and their concerns over the functioning of the Election Commission of India (ECI) and demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
BJP National Spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari, taking to X, said that even if Congress tried to “relaunch” Rahul Gandhi in 100 different ways, the people of the country will choose Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Rahul Gandhi is fighting a battle against Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh to bargain for more seats in alliance. AAP and SP by not attending the meeting called by Congress have exposed Rahul Gandhi’s call for “Opposition Unity” on SIR,” he said.
“SIR is just “Bahana”; earlier it was ” EVM”, tomorrow it will be something else. Congress can try to relaunch Rahul in 100 different ways: 2029 People of India will chose PM Narendra Modi,” Bhandari added.
Earlier in the day, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan stated that “no one” in the INDIA bloc, or in the Congress party, is willing to accept Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi as their leader, and hence many of the parties and leaders have “refused to attend” the Opposition alliance’s meeting.
Speaking to IANS, Chouhan said, “The INDI alliance fell apart even before the meeting began. DMK is not attending the meeting. Akhilesh Yadav is busy somewhere else. AAP had already refused beforehand. Uddhav Thackeray will not join physically, but virtually. Why is this happening?”
“It is because the INDI alliance is simply not ready to accept Rahul Gandhi as their leader. They do not accept Rahul Gandhi’s leadership, which is why they are not attending,” he added.
The Union Minister also claimed that several leaders in the Congress party itself are not willing to accept Rahul as their leader.
“Not just the INDIA bloc, but even the Congress leaders are not willing to accept Rahul Gandhi as their leader. Rahul Gandhi asks Congress leaders at the CWC meet to call him their leader. When Congress leaders themselves are not willing to accept Rahul Gandhi as their leader, how will the country accept him?” Chouhan questioned.
“A clean voter list is the soul of democracy. If wrong names are added to the voter list, then what is wrong with it? Why is there a problem in removing the names of people who are no longer alive or adding names of those who are not citizens? The voter list must be clean,” he added.
The INDIA bloc’s meeting assumes significance amid differences among alliance constituents over strategy and participation, with opposition parties seeking to work out a common approach on electoral-roll revisions and related concerns.
