Hug row flares up in INDIA bloc as Rahul Gandhi draws fire from Pinarayi Vijayan, Baby over remarks

The fresh attack by the CPI(M) came a day after the Congress on Friday released the audio and text of Gandhi’s address to the INDIA bloc meeting (File photo)

5 min readJun 13, 2026 10:44 PM IST

First published on: Jun 13, 2026 at 10:09 PM IST

Less than a week after the leadership of the INDIA bloc met and decided to reinvigorate their alliance, fresh rifts surfaced in the Opposition coalition Saturday with its key constituent CPI(M) taking potshots at top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, saying his political approach does not strengthen the bloc and often ends up helping the BJP.

Days before the INDIA alliance’s June 8 meeting, CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby had written to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, conveying his party’s strong displeasure over the attacks made during the recent Kerala Assembly elections by Gandhi and other senior Congress national leaders on the then chief minister and CPI(M) stalwart Pinarayi Vijayan. This issue was also raised by CPI(M) leader John Brittas, a Rajya Sabha MP, at the meeting.

The fresh attack by the CPI(M) came a day after the Congress on Friday released the audio and text of Gandhi’s address to the INDIA bloc meeting. According to sources, some of its constituents, including the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the RJD besides the CPI(M), had questioned the Congress’s style of functioning, including its decision to break up with the DMK following the Tamil Nadu elections, at the closed-door meeting.

In his speech concluding the meeting, Gandhi, who is also the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, said, “It is not my place to answer any of the things that were said today about the Congress party. It is my place to — like in the Shaiva tradition — swallow everything. The idea of the blue-necked One (Shiva) who drinks all the poison. Whatever more you want to say, whatever criticism you have of me or the Congress party, we will accept it, and we will accept it happily, with a smile on our face. We will try to make you happy, because our role is fundamentally different from yours. I do not say this with arrogance. Our role, as many of you have stated, is to unite all of you together with love and affection.”

Gandhi, according to the text released by the Congress, went on to say: “Get rid of the notion that we are not coordinated and do not act together. These are all ideas the BJP is putting out. This is not true. I am 100% sure, and I can vouch right now for the DMK. When it comes to defending the idea of India, every single person will be in this room. We have our fights, but if you are asking me to go and hug the ex-chief minister of Kerala. I cannot and I will not, because I have an ongoing political fight with him. So we have to be flexible and we have to realise that there is a full-scale assault on us, trying to prove that the Opposition is weak.”

Hitting back at Rahul Saturday, Vijayan said hugging is not a common phenomenon in politics. “It is rare for people to hug each other. When I and Rahul Gandhi meet, we generally greet each other or shake hands. But we all saw the photograph of Rahul Gandhi hugging Narendra Modi. I don’t have any problem with him hugging Modi. But, what he said (at the INDIA bloc meeting) was portraying it in a different way. It reflects Rahul Gandhi’s style of talking, how he sees the INDIA bloc.”

Vijayan also said, “The situation in which the INDIA bloc finds itself today, because of that situation, it is not only us, but Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav and other major non-Congress parties, they also spoke against the Congress position (at the meeting). We know where the DMK stands now. All this is because of the Congress’s approach and particularly because of Rahul Gandhi’s approach. The reality is that this approach does not strengthen the INDIA alliance. It often ends up helping the BJP. Through such actions, Rahul Gandhi often ends up becoming an aid of the BJP.”

CPI(M) chief Baby, too, slammed Rahul. “Nobody is asking Rahul Gandhi to hug Pinarayi Vijayan. On the contrary, all that we are asking is that he stop being a facilitator for the ED and the Modi government by demanding the arrest of Pinarayi Vijayan and other Opposition leaders. That is not the job of the Leader of the Opposition,” he said.