INDIA bloc prepares joint action as BJP challenges Rahul Gandhi’s leadership

Leaders of India’s INDIA opposition bloc met in New Delhi on Wednesday to agree an action plan over alleged irregularities in the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, as the BJP questioned Rahul Gandhi’s leadership. The meeting followed the appearance of hoardings in the capital attacking opposition leaders over their stated positions on the Election Commission. The posters did not identify who had put them up.

Separately, Ashish Usha Agrawal, national convenor of the BJP’s media department, said opposition parties were already questioning Gandhi before the meeting began. “Who all will distance themselves from Rahul Gandhi will become clear today in the INDIA alliance meeting,” Agrawal wrote on X. Gandhi is the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and a senior Congress leader.

The meeting was expected to consider a joint agitation over the voter-roll revision and demands for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Sources said a draft notice for a fresh motion in both Houses of Parliament seeking the CEC’s removal was ready for discussion. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, and general secretaries Jairam Ramesh and K.C.

Venugopal attended. Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress and leaders of the Samajwadi Party, CPI, CPI(M), NCP(SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) were also listed among the participants. The Election Commission has withdrawn an additional declaration from the online Form 6 voter-registration application in states where the revision exercise has been completed.

The declaration required new applicants to provide details linking themselves, or their parents or grandparents, to electoral rolls prepared during an earlier intensive revision. The requirement remains on the ECINET portal in states and Union Territories where the revision is still under way. In other areas, online Form 6 submissions have reverted to the earlier process without the declaration.

At a Congress Working Committee meeting on Tuesday, Gandhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had told him in a private meeting that Congress would return to power after the Bharatiya Janata Party left office. Gandhi also urged a stronger campaign over alleged “vote-chori”, or vote theft. The source material gives no response from Modi to that account.