Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 7: Two episodes in two days have exposed the lack of coordination between the opposition INDIA bloc’s constituents, ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections due in 2027.
Rahul Gandhi found himself at the centre of an attack by the MK Stalin-led DMK, a former ally, on Tuesday, though a day later, on Wednesday, the censure had turned to support the Congress-led protest demanding the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, from where the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party became conspicuous by its absence.
The DMK’s U-turn was eye-caching. “How can elections be fair if Gyanesh Kumar, holding a high post, is anti-democratic? He should definitely be removed. It is the right of the citizens to fight against the government’s wrongdoings, and that is what Rahul Gandhi did yesterday. This government doesn’t want Rahul Gandhi to protest against Gyanesh Kumar,” DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan said on Wednesday, a day after the party criticised Rahul Gandhi, questioning his “silence” over the alleged voter deletions in Tamil Nadu.
On Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, headlined the Opposition INDIA bloc’s protest and led a march from parliament to Election Commission’s office to demand the scrapping of special intensive revision of electoral rolls, and sacking of the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
In a strongly worded post on X on Tuesday, DMK spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai questioned Gandhi’s stance on the deletions made through the SIR process in Tamil Nadu. Annadurai accused the Congress MP of “adopting inconsistent positions” regarding the electoral roll revision exercise and asked why developments in Tamil Nadu had not received the same attention as the broader campaign against the Election Commission.
The DMK has alleged that millions of voters were removed from Tamil Nadu’s electoral rolls during the poll body’s SIR exercise. The regional party did not even attend last week’s India bloc meeting meant to develop a strategy to begin a countrywide protest against Gyanesh Kumar. It had, however, indicated that it supports the cause and stands with the Opposition bloc on this issue. Tuesday’s swipe at Rahul Gandhi came despite the assurances.
Gandhi or his party has not responded to the DMK leader’s comments. After the 2026 state assembly polls, the decades-old DMK-Cong alliance collapsed. The Congress severed ties with its long-time ally to support actor Vijay’s TVK in forming the government, triggering a bitter fallout between the DMK and Congress.
On Wednesday, the Samajwadi Party MPs stayed away from Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s lunch meeting for INDIA bloc parties and the Opposition protest that followed, with senior SP sources saying no senior Congress leader had called them, a day after Rahul Gandhi’s surprise sit-in at Akashvani Bhawan left allies, including SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, in the dark.
The Congress said all INDIA bloc parties had been invited, and that some could not attend because the programme was finalised late on Tuesday night. The Congress and the SP are already engaged in a war of words over seat-sharing in the state, where the SP won 37 of 80 Lok Sabha seats and the Congress six in the 2024 general election as alliance partners. They are hoping to create momentum to potentially defeat the BJP government in UP next year, a key step towards their 2029 target for the Centre.
Senior SP sources said the party did not receive information about Kharge’s lunch, though another source separately said an invitation did come but at very short notice and with no message from the Congress top leadership, so the party skipped it. Either way, the absence was notable.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a post apparently about this “rift” on X: “All INDIA janbandhan [people’s alliance] parties had been invited for today’s lunch. But the decision for the lunch had been taken late last night and communicated. It was therefore natural that some parties could not be represented.” He further wrote, “There is needless comment in some sections of the media on it. INDIA and other Opposition parties are united and stand in solidarity against Vote Chori, SIR and Delimitation.”
A day earlier, INDIA bloc MPs protested inside Parliament and then marched towards Nirvachan Sadan, the EC office. Police stopped them on the way and detained them. But Rahul Gandhi, and later Priyanka Gandhi, managed to give the cops the slip and entered Akashvani Bhawan, the All India Radio office close to the EC office, accompanied by a few Congress leaders. The sit-in continued till late night, until police detained the leaders and filed an FIR.
Sources said Akhilesh Yadav was not informed of the move and left for Lucknow after being released from detention. As word spread that only Congress leaders were on dharna, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress sent Derek O’Brien to Akashvani Bhavan. Two SP MPs also reached the venue late in the evening.
Congress leaders, speaking privately, conceded the decision to go to Akashvani Bhavan was taken on the spur of the moment without informing alliance partners which has caused unease within the Opposition ranks, with some allies feeling the joint demonstration was reduced to a Gandhi siblings’ show. They agreed that some allies could not be informed in time, and said they regretted the suspicion it caused. Alliance partners felt the protest had turned into a Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi dharna. Some leaders also questioned the demand to meet the Chief Election Commissioner when the entire protest was directed against the Election Commission and the CEC.
Some Congress leaders argued that pre-planned protests were difficult in the present circumstances and that an element of surprise was necessary. They said allies who were not informed in time should join on their own, pointing out that partners had similarly joined later in earlier surprise protests at the Prime Minister’s residence and the Parliament Street police station.
On their way to Nirvachan Sadan, the EC office, INDIA bloc MPs first staged a protest inside Parliament and then marched out via Parivahan Bhawan, which houses the road transport ministry. Police stopped them as they moved past the Reserve Bank of India building, after which the leaders sat down for a dharna on the spot. Police detained the protesters and put them on buses. Priyanka Gandhi had also boarded a bus. The detained INDIA bloc leaders were taken to the Parliament Street police station, but Rahul Gandhi entered Akashvani Bhawan, where Priyanka Gandhi later joined him. The sit-in continued till late night, until police detained them. An FIR was later filed.
When word spread that only Rahul Gandhi and Congress leaders were on dharna, phone calls began across the alliance. The Trinamool Congress (Mamata Banerjee faction) sent Derek O’Brien to Akashvani Bhawan, while the Samajwadi Party sent Rampur MP Mohibbullah Nadvi.