Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 26: The Congress leader and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has put the ball in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s court to protect the interests of the traders by averting an opposition agitation during the festive season.
Days after the traders’ body urged him to postpone the opposition INDIA bloc’s November 1 rally in support of their allegations of “vote theft” at least till November 10 when the Diwali would be over, Rahul Gandhi on Monday advised the traders how they could avert the opposition agitation. “Tell Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sack the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and the protest will stop in 30 seconds,” Mr Gandhi said.
“To every trader in Delhi: We love you and hear you. The Government shut the metro, sealed our roads and locked down our capital,” Mr Gandhi said on X. “With a stolen vote nothing is safe – your shop, your savings, your children’s future,” the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said. “Tell Modi to sack accused no. 4, Gyanesh Kumar and the protests will stop in 30 seconds,” he added.
The Chamber of Trade and Industry (CTI) had urged Mr Gandhi to postpone the INDIA bloc’s November 1 rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan until after November 10, pointing out that it could disrupt business worth ₹10,000 crore during the peak Diwali shopping season. In a letter to Gandhi, CTI chairman Brijesh Goyal said the rally could affect wholesale and retail markets around Ramlila Maidan at a time when traders expect heavy customer footfall ahead of Dhanteras and Diwali.
Goyal said the rally’s venue was next to Old Delhi’s busy wholesale and retail hubs, which typically record their heaviest customer footfall in the week leading up to the festival calendar. Dhanteras falls on November 6, followed by Diwali on November 8 and Bhai Dooj on November 10. Delhi’s markets generate roughly Rs 25,000 crore in turnover around Dhanteras alone – spanning high-volume sectors such as gold and silver, electronics and automobiles, among others, Goyal said in his letter requesting to protect peak-season trade by rescheduling the protest.
The traders’ body said markets generally see increased activity about a week before the festivals, making the timing of the rally a matter of concern for traders. The traders’ body requested the leader of the Congress party, a core constituent of the opposition INDIA bloc, to consider holding the rally after November 10, saying the postponement would help protect business activity during one of the busiest periods of the year.
The Opposition rally is aimed at ramping up pressure on the government over the “vote chori” issue and for the Chief Election Commissioner’s resignation over the alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Kumar has been the main target of the Opposition’s protest over his handling of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise and other issues, including taking alleged unilateral decisions even after the two election commissioners who work with him “objected on record” several decisions taken by the poll body allegedly without their knowledge.
The November 1 rally is part of a long campaign by the Opposition alliance to demand the resignation of the chief election commissioner.
On October 12, Opposition leaders and activists had marched through heavily barricaded arterial roads to file a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the SIR exercise. The next day, Gandhi hosted leaders of the INDIA bloc for tea at his Delhi home, after which the alliance announced it would continue the campaign against vote chori.”