‘Show a large heart’: Allies send Congress a strong message in INDIA bloc meeting

The Congress faced criticism from some of the constituents of the INDIA bloc at a meeting of the alliance here Monday, with leaders such as Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav indulging in some plain speaking. Some of the leaders, including those from the CPI(M) and the NCP (SP), also took a dig at the Congress for breaking its long-held alliance with the DMK in Tamil Nadu.

After the meeting, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, flanked by Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, announced the decision to write to the CJI on alleged electoral irregularities and press for the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan amid the uproar over paper leaks and exam glitches.

Sources said at the meeting, Akhilesh Yadav bluntly told the Congress leadership — represented at the meeting by party chief Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul — that the party should show a “large heart” and be “accommodative”. The SP president pointed out that the meeting of the alliance itself was taking place after a long gap and during this time the political situation had become much more vitiated. He said the alliance should introspect whether it was acting the way it should have.

Coming to the Congress, Akhilesh said regional parties had no qualms in saying they are in an alliance with the Congress, but the national party never says so. He was critical of the Congress for breaking the alliance with the DMK, a point endorsed later by NCP (SP)’s Supriya Sule and CPI(M)’s John Brittas. Making it clear that it would not share space with the Congress, the DMK, a founding member of the INDIA bloc, did not attend the meeting.

The SP chief said the Congress’s state leaderships perhaps are not able to gauge the seriousness of the political situation. Tejashwi Yadav endorsed this and, at one point, is learnt to have said that the Congress’s state leadership in Bihar is “compromised”. Akhilesh is learnt to have said that had Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar been in the alliance, the situation would have been different now.

Referring to the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) raids at the residence of former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Akhilesh said INDIA bloc members should stand with each other when central agencies target any of them.

Endorsing Akhilesh, Tejashwi said he had pleaded with the Congress during the last round of Rajya Sabha elections, but received no response. Flagging the issue of lack of coordination, he said the constituents of the alliance fought each other in 10 to 15 seats in Bihar.

Former West Bengal CM and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee spoke about “political atrocities” before, during, and after the Assembly elections. She appealed to the leaders to stand united and let the Congress take the lead in coordination between the parties of the INDIA bloc. The bloc needs to encourage civil society movements and try not to criticise each other, she said.

Alleging that the Bengal election was “stolen”, Banerjee called for a delegation of the alliance to meet the Election Commission (EC), but the proposal did not find much traction. In the end, it was decided that the bloc would write to the Chief Justice of India (CJI). Speaking about Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh said if anyone thinks she lost, they were wrong.

In the meeting Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray, who joined virtually, suggested that the alliance should project a leader as its face. He argued that the alliance should introspect why an online phenomenon such as the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) had managed to get such traction. “Have people lost faith in us?” he is learnt to have said. He said the alliance should be active all the time not just during elections and should hit the roads.

CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP Brittas said the BJP was managing to win elections after elections despite mass discontent among people. Citing Bengal, he said the BJP now not only wants to be the ruling party but was usurping the Opposition space as well.

Brittas conveyed his party’s strong displeasure to the Congress about attacks on Vijayan by its national leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, during the recent Assembly election campaign. He said the Congress and the Left had been fighting each other in Kerala for long. He argued that the Left would not have any problem if AICC general secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal, who hails from Kerala, attacked it or its leaders, but Gandhi and Kharge were faces of the INDIA bloc.

“They are the Opposition leaders whom we support and when they come to Kerala and make wild charges that we have an understanding with BJP, we cannot digest that. We don’t want a certificate on secularism from anyone. We have been taking on the BJP ideologically and politically for years. In 2004, the Left extended unconditional support to the Congress to keep the BJP away from power. That shows our unflinching commitment to secularism,” he said.

Brittas too flagged the Congress breaking its alliance with the DMK, saying driving out the M K Stalin-led party from the INDIA bloc was not “a good omen”. He said the impression was that the Congress did it for a ministerial berth or a Rajya Sabha seat and argued such deviation was unfortunate.

Rahul Gandhi’s response

Replying at the end, Rahul Gandhi said he accepted all the criticism with a smile and assured the leaders that his role was to unite all of them with “love and affection”.

Gandhi reiterated his long-held view that elections in the country are stolen. While Mamata Banerjee might be 90% sure that polls were stolen, and Akhilesh and Tejashwi 50% sure, he was 100% sure that elections in the country were rigged, the Congress leader said. “It is clear that the Congress and INDIA are on one side and on the other side it is BJP-RSS. We will have love and affection to unite these parties,” the LoP said.

Gandhi is learnt to have said in response to Brittas’s remarks that he had no personal enmity with Vijayan and argued speeches during campaigning are crafted taking inputs and feedback from the state leadership. He played down his attacks on Vijayan, saying it was done during campaigning and should not be seen as a personal attack.

Among the others who spoke at the meeting was Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah, who called for “introspection” and urged the alliance members to stay positive, pointing out that they had managed to reduce the BJP to a minority government at the Centre. He said the alliance must acknowledge that the Congress is the glue that holds it together. Abdullah also said the Opposition should associate with the CJP as they “must be doing something right”. The National Conference leader also appealed to the parties to back it on the issue of statehood for J&K.

PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti is learnt to have told the meeting that the INDIA bloc should have a “collective social media presence”, while Independent MP Kapil Sibal wants the alliance to set up a secretariat, a research team, and a team of spokespersons.