INDIA bloc dinner meet: From Farooq Abdullah to Kamal Haasan – Who all attended the meeting

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi with social gathering chief Sonia Gandhi, NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, his daughter and social gathering chief Supriya Sule throughout INDIA bloc dinner meet (PTI picture)

NEW DELHI: Leaders of the INDIA bloc gathered for a dinner meeting hosted by Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Thursday night to focus on the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) train in Bihar and Gandhi’s latest allegations of ballot rigging involving the Election Commission (EC).The casual meeting passed off at Gandhi’s residence and was attended by round 50 leaders from 25 opposition events. During the dialogue, Gandhi made a presentation outlining the explosive claims of a “huge criminal fraud” which he alleged concerned collusion between the ruling social gathering BJP and the EC.Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi described the meeting as “positive” and confirmed that the SIR train and revelations made by Gandhi had been the core discussions carried. He mentioned that it wasn’t a proper meeting and different points had been additionally mentioned.“The way opposition parties have been united in Parliament in national interest and have cornered the government, the same unity was visible in the meeting as well,” Gogoi added.Communist Party of India (CPI) common secretary D Raja known as the meeting very significant. “Today’s meeting was very meaningful, the issue was ongoing controversy, SIR, and how EC has been functioning, how wrong things are being done as far as enrolment of voters are concerned, their identities are concerned,” Raja mentioned.National Conference (NC) chief Farooq Abdullah raised the situation of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir, stating that the Centre had but to fulfill its promise. He additionally voiced concern over the latest ban on sure books in the area, calling it unconstitutional.Leaders current at the meeting included Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Sharad Pawar (NCP-SP), Akhilesh Yadav (SP), Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena-UBT), Mehbooba Mufti (PDP), Abhishek Banerjee (TMC), Tiruchi Siva (DMK), M A Baby (CPI-M), Dipankar Bhattacharya (CPI-ML) and Kamal Haasan (MNM), amongst others.Chief ministers Siddaramaiah (Karnataka), Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh) and Revanth Reddy (Telangana) had been additionally current.Other attendees included Priyanka Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh, Mahua Maji (JMM), NK Premachandran (RSP), Dimple and Ramgopal Yadav (SP), in addition to representatives from the Forward Bloc, VCK, Kerala Congress (M), MDMK, KMDK, PWK, RLP, IUML and Kerala Congress (J).The meeting got here on the similar day Rahul Gandhi introduced knowledge from the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, claiming that over one lakh votes had been “stolen” in a Karnataka meeting section via 5 totally different strategies of manipulation. He asserted that “vote chori” is an “atom bomb on our democracy”.The opposition has been vocal towards the SIR train in Bihar, warning that it may lead to disenfranchisement of many. They are additionally planning a protest march to the Election Commission’s headquarters in Delhi in the coming days.