Rahul said the fight is getting bigger and they “have to walk this path together” while Kharge said if anyone wants to fight the BJP, they should be part of the Opposition bloc.
It was not acrimonious but a lot of back and forth happened at the I.N.D.I.A. bloc meeting on Wednesday over decisions on expanding its protests to districts and a march to Election Commission, with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee at one point telling the meeting that she is “not egoistic” and Rahul Gandhi can be Prime Minister.
The tone and tenor of the nearly two-and-half-hour-long meeting chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was friendly compared to the June 8 meeting where Left leaders targeted Rahul for his attack on CPI(M) in Kerala, as all came together in the fight against Election Commission which they accused of being partisan to the ruling BJP.
Sources said Mamata’s tone was emotional and combative against the BJP and the EC following her defeat in West Bengal, as she told the leaders that she wants to “fight this battle as a worker”. She repeatedly said she “is not egoistic” and referred to her telephone call with CPI(M) General Secretary MA Baby after his letter to her on fighting against the EC together.
“When I telephoned him, I could not talk to him initially as he was on a flight. Later we spoke,” she said without referring to the bitter rivalry between the two parties in West Bengal. She then turned to Rahul and said, “I am not egoistic. You can be the Prime Minister.”
Immediately, Kharge intervened, which a senior Opposition leader later described as a “mature” reaction that proved him to be a “seasoned politician”, saying, “this is not about who becomes Prime Minister. That we can decide after the elections. What is important is saving the country.”
At the meeting, sources said, there were some doubts about holding joint programmes at district levels following CPI(ML)L General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya’s suggestion to that effect. The Left leader’s argument was that Delhi-centric programmes would not serve the purpose and it was time that they expand the protests to the grassroots and it prevailed with the group deciding to hold protests at district level between October 2 and 8.
Concerns, if not objections, were raised with some referring to parties getting busy with Bihar MLC elections while Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal asked how they could organise such protests in Kerala where his party and the Left are at loggerheads. Bhattacharya insisted that the waiting game would not work.
Rahul told the meeting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “shaken”, their protests are getting traction and they should not lose momentum. He acknowledged that in some states, there may not be joint protests but that should not deter them from standing together at the national level. “We should not end up blaming each other in such circumstances,” he said.
Forward Bloc General Secretary G Devarajan said the leaders should have a flash protest at the EC by marching to Nirvachan Sadan, a suggestion that got immediate support from Mamata, who asked Rahul whether he had a problem. Rahul said he doesn’t have one but said they may be stopped midway.
Venugopal was also supportive of the idea but some leaders, including CPI(M)’s John Brittas and CPI’s P Sandosh Kumar, suggested that they should have a more organised protest following which the meeting decided on calling all Opposition MPs to Delhi on October 6 for a march to the EC.
Senior lawyer and independent MP Kapil Sibal told the meeting that demanding the arrest of the CEC is one thing but it would not be possible in the current regime as he enjoys immunity under law. At this point, he suggested that the I.N.D.I.A. bloc as a whole file a joint petition challenging the 2023 law on appointment of CECs and ECs that also gives life-long immunity.
He also suggested that FIRs should be filed against the EC official heading its IT Division – Seema Khanna – as a first step while Mamata demanded that she be arrested, which was echoed by some others.
While some leaders spoke about how they suffered electorally and otherwise, Kharge said no one else would have suffered like him as he referred to the “shudhikaran” ceremony held by RSS-BJP activists as also his defeat in Gulbarga Lok Sabha seat in 2019. He said he lost the elections in the seat after 14 successive victories after the BJP wrongfully deleted 1.90 lakh votes.
“The ‘vote chori’ started not in 2024 but in 2019. The 2024 results are dicey,” he said. Rahul responded, “we all are equal in suffering, we are equal in resistance.”
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah felt that going to the President was unproductive as he said that they may not get an appointment and even if they get, there would be conditions that they cannot accept. He also said there was a time they demanded elections be held while they were under central rule, but they cannot trust polls any more.
There was no specific mention about CJP though Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray referred to the October 2 protest by the youth movement in Mumbai. Sources said he found fault with the Chief Justice of India for his comments about bypolls in West Bengal.
He also said the EC after targeting his party is now aiming at Mamata’s Trinamool. His party colleague Jitendra Awhad said, “even before Gyanesh Kumar, (former CEC) Rajiv Kumar killed us (party).”
Baby told the leaders that they should remember that they are not fighting the BJP but the “fascistic” RSS and it is not business as usual. His suggestion to approach the President as also involving the civil society found a place in the final decisions of the bloc.
While several leaders spoke about returning to paper ballots as they expressed concerns about EVMs, Rahul said he has the best example of EVM tampering and referred to the machines being burnt in South Kolkata. “Why did it happen in South Kolkata?” he asked.
Rahul said the fight is getting bigger and they “have to walk this path together” while Kharge said if anyone wants to fight the BJP, they should be part of the Opposition bloc. He told the leaders that he has “serious stuff against the Prime Minister”, as officials from the CBI, Enforcement Directorate and EC are providing information.
He said some of you have been Chief Ministers and he is sure that they are also getting information as well. Collect it, share it with each other, and then we will corner the government together, he said. He also said in the next six-eight months, the country would witness developments that would not help Modi and Shah.
