INDIA bloc to protest at Rajghat as Kharge hosts 2nd lunch for Opposition MPs

New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday hosted lunch for INDIA bloc MPs and leaders at a Connaught Place restaurant, before the allies would head to Rajghat to protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

This was the second lunch in as many days that the Congress hosted for the MPs seeking Kumar's resignation.

Samajwadi Party, which was missing the day before, attended the lunch, as did Shiv Sena-UBT and NCP-SCP, which too were absent on Wednesday.


Besides Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, several Congress MPs, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, K C Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Vivek Tankha, Manickam Tagore, Jothimani, Rajiv Shukla, and Deepender Hooda, were at the lunch.

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Himachal Pradesh and Telangana chief ministers Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and A Revanth Reddy were also there.

TMC's Abhishek Banerjee, Menaka Guruswamy, Saket Gokhale, Samirul Islam and SP's Rajeev Rai and Mohibbullah, CPI-M MP John Brittas, CPI's P Sandosh and RJD's Sudhakar Singh were also present at the lunch by Kharge hosted at Moets in Outer Circle, Connaught Place.

The huddles on the trot come as the opposition offensive against CEC Kumar intensified, with Rahul Gandhi climbing the barricades raised to stop MPs' march on Wednesday, and other dramatic scenes of resistance.

Today is the third day of continuous protests in the national capital by top opposition leaders.

Venugopal said they have sought time from President Droupadi Murmu.

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"The first request letter was sent on October 2. Then Rashtrapati Bhavan office intimated us to give us names. After that, on the 5th, we gave a request again with the names also, with all INDIA alliance leaders. Basically, we asked for an appointment for the 7th, the 8th, the 9th. Today is 8th. We will wait for tomorrow also... So far there is no response," he said.

Deepender Hooda said they wanted to meet the election commissioners, but were denied permission.

"We were not even allowed to sit at Jantar Mantar. You saw the brutality by the police. This is the game being played, where the authoritarian forces in power want to suppress the voice of the people. Elections are being held in the country in collusion between the BJP and the Election Commission, and we will not allow this to happen. This struggle will continue," he said.

Dragging the Lok Sabha leader of the opposition in streets and assaulting women is "anarchy," Jothimani said. "We are actually defending the country against Modi's anarchy," she said.

RJD MP Sudhakar Singh said this "fight for justice" will continue until Kumar resigns, while SP's Rajeev Rai said he was in the hospital yesterday and hence could not come.

On second meeting of the opposition MPs, CPI(M) MP John Brittas said, "This is a perpetual agitation. Will Gyanesh Kumar put in his papers, we will continue to protest."

Gandhi earlier said that they will not stop protesting until Kumar resigns.

"This is a fight to protect the most sacred thing in this country. There is nothing that Narendra Modi and Amit Shah can do that will stop us," he said.

On Wednesday, there were several dramatic moments in the nearly three-hour-long bus procession and an impromptu sit-in at the roundabout in front of the Shangri-La hotel when the opposition MPs were stopped by security personnel, with Priyanka lying flat on her back on the street, clutching a copy of the Constitution.

Gandhi kept resisting police attempts to put him inside a van for detention, while INDIA bloc leaders jostled with security personnel who tried to detain them.

On Tuesday, the INDIA bloc MPs marched from Parliament and Gandhi observed an eight-hour sit-in at Akashvani Bhawan. On Wednesday, the scene shifted to nearby Jantar Mantar.