Congress chief Kharge to host dinner for INDIA bloc MPs on 11 August

Congress chief Kharge. Image/Filepic

Days after Rahul Gandhi did a press conference putting light on voter list manipulation, the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge is now set to hold a dinner for INDIA bloc MPs on Monday. According to the sources, the dinner will also hold a discussion by the opposition in view of closing ranks against the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and alleged poll rigging.

As reported by news agency PTI, the opposition leaders and MPs would also take out a protest march on Monday from Parliament to the Election Commission office over the "poll fraud" issue.

After the protest march, the leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha will host INDIA bloc MPs for dinner at the Hotel Taj Palace, Chanakyapuri.

This comes just days after top INDIA bloc leaders held a dinner meeting at the residence of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and vowed to fight against the electoral rolls' revision in Bihar as well as what they described as the "vote chori model" of the BJP-Election Commission.

Since the INDIA bloc's last meeting in June 2024 at Kharge's residence, this was their first physical meeting.

News agency PTI has also reported that several leaders from 25 parties were present at the meeting, which included Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar, National Conference supremo Farooq Abdullah, PDP's Mehbooba Mufti, SP's Akhilesh Yadav, RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, TMC's Abhishek Banerjee, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, DMK's Tiruchi Siva and T R Baalu, CPI (M)'s M A Baby, CPI's D Raja, CPI (ML)'s Dipankar Bhattacharya and MNM chief Kamal Haasan.

Rahul Gandhi presented the "vote chori model" during the meeting, alleging that the BJP is perpetrating it through the Election Commission.

The Congress, while addressing the issue, asserted that "The leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, also explained the entire ‘game' of how the BJP and the Election Commission were ‘rigging' the elections," as cited by news agency PTI.

Congress also highlighted that, "A unified front against electoral manipulation!" However, in a social media post on X, they later said that, "We are dedicated to the preservation of democracy and will prevent its destruction at all costs."

Earlier Rahul Gandhi had also delivered a presentation at a press conference in which he made incendiary claims about a "huge criminal fraud" in polls that was the result of "collusion" between the BJP and the Election Commission.

Gaurav Gogoi, the deputy leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, stated, "The same unity was visible in the meeting as the way opposition parties have been united in Parliament in the national interest and have cornered the government," as cited by news agency PTI.

Opposition parties have been protesting the SIR exercise currently underway in Bihar, asserting that it would result in the disenfranchisement of a significant number of individuals.

(With PTI inputs)