Rahul Gandhi who till recently was a pariah for opposition leaders has become the fulcrum of opposition politics with senior political opposition leaders finally taking him and his politics seriously.
In a March from Parliament House to the election commission to protest the election commission’s disenfranchisement of voters in Bihar all the senior political leaders from the opposition were present and courted arrest.
This includes Sharad Pawar who was present in the march and then boarded the bus to court arrest also included the Samajvadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav, the tic and all the other opposition leaders and MPs.
The narrative has changed.
https://twitter.com/RahulGandhi/status/1954809121750044771
And it’s Rahul’s narrative which is carrying the day, putting the ruling BJP on the defence, and bringing opposition leaders together.
Whether it be caste census, ‘vote chori’, the Bihar SIR issue or the relentless attack on Narendra Modi’s politics, Rahul has created a narrative which has found an echo in opposition ranks.
For the first time in 21 years, Rahul appears to be accepted by opposition leaders.
So far, the meetings were in the name of Sonia Gandhi but now the epicentre of opposition politics has shifted from 10 Janpath to 5 Sunehri Bagh Road.
Rahul hosted a dinner for the opposition and all the leaders attended from Sharad Pawar to Uddhav Thackeray who came from Mumbai with his wife Rashmi, to Abhijeet Banerjee who attended as Mamta Banerjee’s representative after being made the leader of the TMC parliamentary party to Tejasvi Tadav who arrived from Patna and all the others.
Their presence was their acceptance of Rahul Gandhi and his brand of politics where he has taken up the issues of the majority of the common man.
For the opposition it is a do or die battle.
The evidence presented of how Narendra Modi was winning elections by stealing votes has made the opposition leaders sit up and see what exactly they are up against.
The election commission has been shown to be part of the conspiracy to derail democracy and the free and fair elections, and this message has gone down with the general masses.
Rahul’s pitch is that the government has taken control of all institutions and the only thing left is your vote and that too is being taken away.
He is on a 15-day yatra from 17 August to Bihar and this will be his pitch to win the Bihar Election and keep challenging Modi Government upfront.
Renu Mittal
Renu Mittal is a veteran Journalist of India. She has been reporting on the Congress Party affairs since 1983.
