Mallikarjun Kharge dinner
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Kharge with Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. Photos: @INCIndia/X

Kharge’s dinner proof SIR has given INDIA Bloc glue it needs to stick together

Kharge’s dinner for the Opposition was the third initiative within a month by the Congress high command to bring INDIA Bloc leaders together


Congress president and Rajya Sabha’s Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge’s dinner gathering for Opposition MPs at Delhi’s Taj Palace Hotel on Monday (August 11) may not have witnessed the intense political discussions that marked the dinner his Lok Sabha counterpart Rahul Gandhi hosted for senior INDIA Bloc leaders on August 7, but it signalled an equally-important political posturing.

Sensing that the looming threat of a nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls by the Election Commission (EC) had spooked nearly all Opposition outfits, the Congress high command has finally decided to reverse the impression that it had lost sight of the need for Opposition unity against the BJP soon after the Lok Sabha polls concluded.

If the Congress had done precious little to court its INDIA allies in the year following the Lok Sabha polls, it now appears keen to remedy that flaw. Kharge’s dinner on Monday was the third initiative within a month by the Congress high command to bring Opposition leaders together. The Congress president had presided over a virtual meeting of senior INDIA Bloc leaders on July 19, two days ahead of the start of Parliament’s Monsoon Session.

Then came Rahul’s dinner party for 50 INDIA Bloc leaders last Thursday. Now, it was back to Kharge inviting an even larger contingent of Opposition MPs, including Sandeep Pathak and Sanjay Singh of former INDIA Bloc constituent, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), who the Lok Sabha LoP had left out of his guest list last week.

Kharge invited a large contingent of MPs from INDIA Bloc parties

Unprecedented protest march

Earlier in the day, Rahul and Kharge had led the unprecedented march of over 300 Opposition MPs of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha from Parliament against the SIR. The march, which was initially planned to conclude at the Election Commission’s headquarters, Nirvachan Sadan, could not reach its destination as Delhi Police and paramilitary personnel swooped in to halt the protesting MPs near Transport Bhavan.

After over an hour of negotiations with the security personnel failed to clear the heavily-barricaded road and allow protesters to proceed to Nirvachan Sadan, the MPs, including Kharge and Rahul, were herded into buses and detained by the police at the Parliament Street police station for over two hours.

Also Read: ‘Vote chori’ protest: What does it show about INDIA bloc unity and EC?

Images from the protest, be it of women MPs scaling barricades, of Priyanka Gandhi and scores of other MPs sitting on an impromptu dharna on the road, of Trinamool Congress MP Mitali Bag collapsing or of Rahul being taken into detention, however, achieved for the Opposition what a closed-door meeting with the EC may not have – public attention and hours of media coverage.

Days earlier, Rahul’s forceful press conference on alleged wide-scale irregularities in the electoral rolls of Mahadevapura Assembly segment in Karnataka’s Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha constituency too had compelled even media outlets servile towards the ruling BJP to discuss the revelations.

Uniting force

What has shone through all of this is that the alleged rigging of electoral rolls, the ongoing SIR in poll-bound Bihar, and its impending nationwide replication have forced a bulk of Opposition parties, save for the perpetual fence-sitters of the BJD, YSRCP, and the BRS, to put aside their personal differences and political egos. The Congress high command clearly realises this, which explains why Kharge and Rahul have adroitly branded this bouquet of political landmines as yet another assault by the ruling BJP, in collusion with the EC, on the Constitution.

As such, the SIR and the wider issue of EC’s alleged collusion with the BJP to, in Rahul’s words, “steal elections”, has become the centrepiece of the Congress and INDIA Bloc’s political narrative ahead of the Bihar polls and the half-a-dozen state elections due in the first half of 2026, just as “Save Constitution” was the principal pivot of the Opposition’s 2024 Lok Sabha campaign.

‘Sign of panic’ by Centre?

Neither the Centre nor the EC has, thus far, been able to offer any plausible rebuttal for the revelations made by Rahul or to justify the urgency behind the SIR. Instead, they have only been parroting each other in their criticism of the Congress and the wider Opposition, calling Rahul’s allegations “misleading” and “fake” and, as has now become the norm, accusing the Congress and the INDIA Bloc of working against the interests of India.

The Congress and the Opposition view the Centre’s response as a sign of panic, or as senior Congress MP Pramod Tiwari told The Federal, “(being) afraid after getting caught in the act of stealing elections”.

Also Read: Defiant Akhilesh, fainting MPs: Dramatic photos from INDIA Bloc’s ‘vote chori’ stir

A senior Trinamool Congress MP claimed the government had “possibly not anticipated that the SIR would become such a big uniting force for the Opposition that an entire session, especially at a time when the government’s poor handling of the Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor aftermath as well as (US President Donald) Trump’s tariffs against India has directly hit the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.

On Thursday (August 7), the Centre bulldozed a number of Bills, including the crucial Income Tax Bill, in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha without any real discussion and amid din (in Rajya Sabha, though, the Opposition had staged a walk-out). The hurried passage of most of the important legislation listed by the government has triggered rumours that the Centre may even try to have the Monsoon Session prorogued soon after Parliament reconvenes on Monday (August 18) – the session will break for Independence Day celebrations and the weekend between August 13 and August 17 – instead of allowing the session to end per schedule on August 21.

'Govt running away from discussion'

Many in the Opposition believe an early end of the session is likely as the government wants to “run away from discussing SIR in Parliament”.

Yet, irrespective of whether the Monsoon Session concludes on August 21 or ahead of schedule, the Congress is convinced that the SIR has given the INDIA Bloc the glue it needed to stick together. The consensus among Opposition MPs present at Kharge’s dinner was also for the need to chart out joint INDIA Bloc campaigns against electoral roll revision; the first of which could happen as early as September 1, when Rahul and RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav are scheduled to address a rally at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan.

Also Read: Rahul says fight is for ‘one man, one vote’ as police detain him during SIR protest

Unlike the dinner hosted by Rahul at his official 5, Sunehri Bagh residence on August 7, which was high on politically-loaded discussions, the mood at the gathering hosted by Kharge, say sources, was light-hearted. There were no speeches or presentations on election rigging, nor was there any specific agenda for discussions. Yet, the dinner was significant, say Congress insiders, as it helped soothe frayed nerves within the INDIA bloc while allowing the Congress high command to shed the criticism of arrogance and of not reaching out to its allies; even estranged ones like the AAP.

Opposition’s VP candidate

Sources said discussions at the dinner also helped the Congress high command – Kharge, Rahul, Priyanka, and Congress Parliamentary Party chief Sonia Gandhi collectively played hosts – “informally” broach the issue of a united Opposition candidate for the September 9 vice presidential poll, necessitated by the sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar on July 21. At the dinner hosted by Rahul, the issue was discussed within a limited group of a dozen of the 50 invitees, but was quickly overtaken by deliberations on alleged rigging of electoral rolls.

Also Read: Denied by design? Why proving citizenship is a trial and tribulation for the poor

On Monday, sources said Kharge, NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, RJD’s Misa Bharti, DMK’s Kanimozhi, and other senior alliance leaders discussed the vice-presidential polls again, though “in an informal way, possibly to test what each of them thought on the subject”, and agreed to have a more “official meeting of the alliance soon” to take a call on a prospective joint candidate.

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