New Delhi | A series of hoardings taking potshots at opposition leaders over their alleged contrasting positions on the Election Commission appeared in the national capital on Wednesday ahead of the INDIA bloc meeting.
While the posters didn't mention who put them up, the BJP separately criticised Rahul Gandhi, saying opposition parties have started questioning his leadership even before the INDIA bloc meeting began.
Ashish Usha Agrawal, national Convenor of the BJP Media Department, said the meeting hasn't even started, yet questions are already being raised about Gandhi's leadership.
"Who all will distance themselves from Rahul Gandhi will become clear today in the INDIA alliance meeting," he said in a post on X on Wednesday.
Quoting a Hindi couplet, he said, "And if some faces appear different, then for Rahul Gandhi, all one can say is: Some compulsions must have been there; no one becomes unfaithful without a reason." "The question now is not just about the meeting, but about the trust in Rahul Gandhi's leadership," he added.
One hoarding is divided into two panels, with the headings "When they win" and "When they lose". Under the former, it reads, "SIR may have helped Congress," attributed to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, while under the latter it says, "ECI is not doing its job".
It ends with the line, "ECI same. The story changes." A second hoarding is headlined "Hypocrisy at its peak". Under a "Winning" tag, it quotes Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee as saying, "There is no substance in the allegation against the EC." Under a "losing" tag, it quotes former chief minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee as saying, "Chief Election Commissioner should be arrested".
A third hoarding, in Hindi and English, reads, "INDI Alliance ka dogalapan" (double standards of the INDI Alliance). Its tagline said, "Jeete to ECI ko taali, haare to ECI ko gaali", meaning applause for the ECI in victory and criticism of it in defeat. It carries photographs of several opposition leaders, including Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal and Rahul Gandhi.
TMC leader Derek O'Brien objected to the use of the term "INDI alliance", saying the full name of the opposition bloc is Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) and that the BJP deliberately distorts it as "INDI alliance".
"Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). BJP deliberately distorts and refers to it as INDI alliance. Godi media. Please call it by its name: INDIA. Thank you," he said on X.
Top leaders of the INDIA bloc will meet here on Wednesday to finalise an action plan for a joint agitation over alleged irregularities in the SIR exercise and to press for CEC Gyanesh Kumar's resignation, as the opposition group seeks to close ranks amid the raging row surrounding the Election Commission's decision-making.
Sources said the draft notice for a fresh bid to move a motion in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha to remove CEC (Chief Election Commissioner) Kumar was ready and would be deliberated upon for approval at the meeting.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretaries Jairam Ramesh and K C Venugopal, the TMC's Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, and leaders from parties such as the SP, CPI, CPI(M), NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT), among others, will participate in the meeting.
While the DMK and the AAP have made it clear they won't attend the meeting, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav will also skip it to manage nominations for the Rajya Sabha polls in UP and will send representatives instead.
