New Delhi, 30 September—Rattled by the growing popular appeal of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the BJP today sought to project the INDIA block meeting on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in a bad light saying that it was another attempt by the Congress to “relaunch” the Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition.
Comment, reflecting embedded fear and frustration over the rising anger among the people at large on the ‘Vote Chori’, came as opposition parties met at the Constitution Club in New Delhi to discuss the SIR exercise, their concerns regarding the functioning of the Election Commission of India (ECI), and the demand for the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
In a post on X, Bhandari said Rahul Gandhi was engaged in a dispute with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh over seat-sharing in alliance.
“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 choose PM Narendra Modi,” Bhandari said.
The BJP spokesperson also pointed out to the absence of Aam Admi Party (AAP) and SP from the meeting saying it had exposed the Congress call for “Oppositon unity” over SIR.
Earlier, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also played the same tune saying that parties and leaders within the INDIA bloc were not ready to accept Rahul Gandhi as their leader.
Speaking to media, Chouhan said the opposition alliance had effectively fallen apart even before its meeting began.
“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? he asked.
Chouhan claimed that the reason was that the INDIA bloc was not willing to accept Rahul Gandhi’s leadership.
“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.
Chouhan also claimed that some Congress leaders themselves were unwilling to accept Rahul Gandhi 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?” he said.
On the SIR exercise, Chouhan said maintaining an accurate voter list was essential for democracy.
“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 said overlooking the fact of deletion of 13 crore of voters.
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