Dinner Diplomacy: INDIA bloc leaders to meet at Rahul Gandhi’s residence on August 7, say sources

NEW DELHI: The members of Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) will be meeting over dinner at Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi's residence on August 7, sources said on Sunday. The announcement of the August 7 meeting comes a day after the former Congress president asserted that atleast 70-80 Lok Sabha seats might have been rigged in the 2024 general elections, while addressing the party's conclave on Saturday.

The ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar, alleged voter list manipulation in Maharashtra, Operation Sindoor, India-US trade deal and the tariffs threatened by President Donald Trump are likely to be discussed during the meeting.

This is INDIA bloc's second meeting since the commencement of the Parliament monsoon session. During July 19 virtual meeting, atleast 24 members of the bloc attended, including NCP (SP) leader Sharad Pawar, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said earlier. These issues have been consistently raised by the Opposition parties during the ongoing Parliament monsoon session too, with a 16-hour marathon discussion on Operation Sindoor already being held earlier in both Houses of Parliament.

Attacking the Centre for being "absolutely unwilling to be held accountable," the UBT leader told ANI, "Whether it is the Pahalgam terror attack, we haven't seen any accountability coming from the Home Ministry. With regards to Operation Sindoor, which PM, on the Floor of the House, said is ongoing yet we are having them play Cricket matches together for money over the blood of the people of India. Then we have issues such as SIR."

Mentioning the earlier allegations by Lok Sabha LoP, she demanded answers from the Election Commission (EC) over the deletion of voters in Bihar and the alleged addition of voters in Maharashtra.

"Rahul Gandhi had written about Maharashtra elections. We have been raising the Maharashtra elections process, how 45 lakh voters were added, how 70 lakh voters ended up voting at the last hour. So, those are questions which ECI need to answer and SIR on the basis of which over 60 names have been deleted - so on what grounds? Migrants who have gone to another state but have their vote in Bihar will come back to realise that they don't have their vote anymore. So, they are effectively disenfranchised. So, those are burning issues of the country which we will raise," she added. (ANI)

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