Rahul Gandhi hosts dinner for I.N.D.I.A. bloc leaders at his residence, discusses SIR in Bihar

New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday hosted I.N.D.I.A. bloc leaders at his residence for dinner and discussed the issue of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar and other states as well as claims of Election Commission's "collusion" with the BJP.

This is the first physical meeting of I.N.D.I.A leaders after the Lok Sabha results last June. An online meeting was organised last month.

At the dinner meeting, which preceded the closed-door meeting and attended by around 50 leaders from 25 parties, Rahul made a presentation on ‘vote chori’ (vote stealing), which is about the findings of the Congress’ analysis of an Assembly segment in Karnataka. He made similar charges at a press conference earlier in the day.

RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav briefed the leaders about the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and claimed a “fraud” was happening in the state. He invited all coalition leaders to come to Bihar for the conclusion of a protest programme the I.N.D.I.A. bloc is organising in the state.

The protests against the SIR, that starts on August 10 and also see a ‘padayatra’ by Rahul, Tejashwi and leaders from allies like CPI(ML)L, will culminate on September 1. The meeting was informed about a march by MPs to the EC on August 11 by Venugopal.

After the meeting, Congress Lok Sabha Deputy Leader Gaurav Gogoi told reporters that the meeting was "positive". He said it was "not a formal" meeting.

"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 said.

National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah said he raised the issue of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir and also opposed a ban imposed on certain books in the state.

"I saw how votes were stolen. Our concern is statehood for Jammu and Kashmir, we raised that issue. The statehood that was promised has not been given," he said adding the issue of ban on 25 books was also discussed.

CPI General Secretary D Raja told DH that the meeting was "very meaningful" and the leaders discussed SIR, the functioning of the EC and other issues.