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The people’s newsroom

PoliticsOpposition

Rahul Gandhi thanks BJP for 'promoting' his 1 November rally, asks it to keep up the zeal for seven more days

A day after the BJP tied the date of the INDIA bloc's Ramlila Maidan rally to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the Leader of the Opposition answered with sarcasm and a fresh call to students, farmers, workers and traders to come to Delhi.

From the editorial desk · New DelhiPublished
A gathering at Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi (file photo)
A gathering at Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi (file photo)Photo: Hemant banswal / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Key points

  1. Rahul Gandhi offered heartfelt thanks to the BJP and its allies for publicising the 1 November rally with 'great enthusiasm'.
  2. He said opposition supporters will not tolerate vote theft quietly and urged students, farmers, workers, women and traders to join.
  3. Congress MP Imran Masood told the BJP he does not need a certificate of patriotism from the party.

Rahul Gandhi answered the BJP’s attack on his 1 November rally on Sunday not with a rebuttal but with a thank-you note.

In a post on X, written in Hindi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha renewed his call for people to join the INDIA bloc’s “Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao” march and rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan. He signed off with a postscript aimed squarely at the ruling party.

“Heartfelt thanks to BJP and its allies, who are promoting this program with such great enthusiasm,” he wrote. “Just keep up this same zeal and dedication for the next 7 days!”

A rally the BJP wants moved

The jab came a day after BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad used a press conference at the party’s headquarters to accuse Mr Gandhi of being adamant about the date. Holding the rally on 1 November, the anniversary of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, would rub salt into the wounds of the riot victims, Mr Prasad said, and he claimed some INDIA bloc parties were not convinced and wanted it rescheduled. Delhi’s Chamber of Trade and Industry has also asked Congress to wait until after 10 November, warning of disruption in the festive trading season, and the Federation of LPG Distributors of India has objected to the gathering.

Congress has shown no sign of moving. Party general secretary K C Venugopal has called the Ramlila Maidan march the party’s biggest yet against “vote chori”, and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has asked INDIA bloc leaders to make sure their MPs or senior leaders are in Delhi for it.

“We will not tolerate this quietly”

In his post, Mr Gandhi repeated the charges at the heart of the campaign: that names have been struck off electoral rolls, rules have been flouted and people who ask questions have faced batons. “Our votes are being stolen, and we will not tolerate this quietly under any circumstances,” he wrote, calling on students, farmers, workers, women, youth and traders to come.

Congress wants Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to resign, a nationwide probe into voter lists, a halt to the Special Intensive Revision of rolls and an independent audit of the electoral rolls.

In Saharanpur, Congress MP Imran Masood brushed aside the BJP’s objections. “I do not need a certificate of patriotism from the BJP,” he said, adding that Mr Prasad was past retirement age and that BJP leaders “see Rahul Gandhi in their dreams all night”.

What comes next

Before the rally, INDIA bloc leaders plan a “public impeachment” of the Chief Election Commissioner on 30 October, staged as a mock Parliament at Hotel Ashok in Delhi. Mr Gandhi is expected back from a trip abroad on Sunday and has called a meeting on Monday to settle the protest strategy. Congress says it aims to bring at least 10 lakh people to Delhi on 1 November.