With Congress leader Rahul Gandhi taking the position of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and adopting an aggressive approach, the party is jubilant over the Gandhi scions new avatar as he is taking up the people’s issues.
Rahul Gandhi, who took up the position of the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha last month has been seen in aggressive mode as he addressed over four press conferences in the national capital after party’s victory after the Lok Sabha election results and also raised the issue of NEET exam paper leaks among others.
Rahul Gandhi, who is a MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli, has been taking on the government over several issues and targeted the BJP on the issue of Hinduism, Manipur, NEET exam, Agniveer scheme, misuse.of central agencies and arrest of two prominent leaders — JMM’s Hemant Soren and AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal among others.
He has also surprised the ruling party with his regular appearance among the public.
Rahul Gandhi continued his momentum to visit the public from different walks of life, with his first visit to GTB Nagar area in the national capital and interaction with the daily wage labourers. He then also visited the New Delhi Railway station and met the loco pilots to understand their issues.
He also visited Hathras to meet the victims of the stampede there and urged Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to help the victims with open heart and also increase the ex-gratia amount.
Rahul Gandhi then also surprised the people by visiting Gujarat, days after he dared the BJP that the grand old party-led INDIA bloc will defeat them in the western state in next assembly polls.
The visit to Gujarat comes.in the backdrop of Congress office attacked and several party leaders and workers injured and some of them arrested over his remarks on Hindus during his reply to Motion of Thanks to President’s address in Parliament.
He then visited Manipur and Assam on July 8 and met the victim families of the violence hit state, for the third.timr in the last one year and first as LoP Lok Sabha. He also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the state and to spare a day or two, for the people of violence hit northeastern state as it will restore the faith and confidence.
He visited his Parliamentary constituency of Rae Bareli on July 9 for the first time after taking the job of LoP.
Looking at the aggressive stand of the party leader, even many of the Congress leaders are taking a strong note and it’s leaders like Alok Sharma and Supriya Shrinate and Pawan Khera are also taking strong note on the love debate debate programmes of several news channels and reminding them that Rahul Gandhi is LoP LS and not only an MP.
Khera on Monday, in several tweets coached sever news agencies and channels mentioning them that they need to address their party leader as LoP.
Even Sharma objected to a headline targeting Rahul Gandhi and got it changed during the live show.
Speaking on the changed avatar of Rah Gandhi and his visits to Gujarat, Manipur ad his appearance among public, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s media advisor Pranav Jha told The Daily Guardian, “Rahul Gandhi visited Gujarat, Hathras, Manipur and also met with loco pilots and daily wage labourers. This is not new as he has been meeting people wherever there is requirement to take up the people’s issues.”
Jha said that Rahul Gandhi always tries to be the voice of the people and raise their issues. He said that as the party has now got the responsibility of LoP position he is taking the issues of public and as the BJP workers damaged the Congress office in Gujarat on his remarks that saffron party’s hindutva is not real Hinduism as the religion believes in compassion and peace and doesn’t preaches hatred. Jha also pointed out that how the Congress workers and MLAs were manhandled and attacked in Gujarat. He asserted that Rahul Gandhi met the families of the Congress workers and also went to Manipur to share their pain.
He further asserted that his visit to Manipur was to give people a hope that someone is standing with them and is there.to raise their voice as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not visited the violence hit state in last 14 months.
Jha alleged that the two communities which were living peacefully in Manipur for decades were up against each other due to the ideology of the BJP as it spread hatred and created division for its own profit. Taking a jibe at Modi, he said that the Prime Minister left Manipur and it’s people and entire world was surprised by the behavior of the Prime Minister.
According to party leaders, the Congress has been planning to organise several of Rahul Gandhi’s interactions with the
general public.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress leader had interacted with the Agniveer aspirants in the national capital and discussed their issues and the problems being faced by them due to the change in the policy by the Centre.
Last year, he had.met vegetable vendors, UPSC aspirants, general public in Delhi’s Jama Masjid and Bengali market area, students at Delhi University, truck drivers, carpenters, bike mechanics, coolies at Anand Vihar railway station and delivery partners in Karnataka’s Bengaluru among others.
Party leaders now feel that the performance of the grand old party-led INDIA bloc in Lok Sabha elections has given them edge over the BJP to target the government over several critical issues.
The Congress which was decimated in 2014 and 2018 Lok Sabha elections bounced in 2024 general elections by winning 99 seats while the BJP was reduced to 240 falling short of majority required in the Lok Sabha. The BJP formed government with the help of the NDA alliance partners at the Centre with the 293 seats while the INDIA bloc got 234 seats.