Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday thanked Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav for joining the Voter Adhikar Yatra, stressing in a post that the “two brothers would destroy the vote thieves”, as the Opposition sought to display unity and sharpen its attack on the BJP in the run-up to the Bihar elections.
The over two-week-long Yatra, aimed at mobilising public opinion against the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, will culminate in a padyatra of Opposition leaders in Patna on Monday. The initial plan was to hold a “mega rally” in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan.
“Do bhai, vote choron ki tabahi! (Two brothers will spell doom for vote thieves), Rahul posted on X with pictures of himself with the SP chief. Pictures of other Opposition leaders were also attached to the post.
“Thank you very much, @yadavakhilesh ji, for joining the Voter Adhikar Yatra and extending your support to me, Tejashwi, and all the leaders of the INDIA bloc,” he added.
Although INDIA leaders have participated in the Yatra, it has been widely viewed as a campaign led by Rahul to strengthen the narrative around the “vote theft” charges against the BJP and the Election Commission that the Congress leader had been levelling since the Maharashtra Assembly polls last year.
The Yatra is seen as a smaller version of the Bharat Jodo Yatra that Rahul had undertaken to build his image as an alternative to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the Congress machinery has been fully engaged to make it a success.
Key Opposition leaders and chief ministers of Congress-ruled states were invited to lend strength to the campaign. After Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK chief M.K. Stalin, Akhilesh was the second prominent Opposition face to join the Yatra on Sunday, effectively the last day of the drive. After a day’s break, the padyatra in Patna would be held on Monday.
Addressing a rally in Arrah, the SP chief taunted the BJP for the electoral setback the party had suffered in “Awadh”, the Ayodhya region where the Ram temple is located, and predicted that the saffron party would be ousted from “Magadh” (the Patna region) in the Bihar polls.
“The BJP was beaten in Awadh, and now it’s time to drive them out of Magadh,” Akhilesh said.
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister obliquely referred to a statement by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, claiming Indian civilisation was 40,000 years old, to power
his political attack based on social justice.
“We speak of 5,000 years of social inequality. But now we have been told that this order is 40,000 years old and our fight for social justice continues,” Akhilesh said without naming Bhagwat.
During his three-day lecture series to mark 100 years of the RSS, Bhagwat had said that people living in the broad landmass of “united India”, comprising many neighbouring countries, share the same DNA for 40,000 years.
The Opposition Mahagathbandhan alliance in Bihar has not declared their chief ministerial face, but Akhilesh promised “full support” to RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav to form the next government.
“We will extend full support to Tejashwi. May he form the next government and put Bihar on the path of development,” he said.
He accused the EC of becoming a “jugaad (manipulation) commission” and taking directives from the BJP to defeat the Opposition. “The BJP was trying to intimidate us, but was getting scared by Trump. Tariffs have sealed the lips of BJP leaders,” he said.
Rahul continued with his attack on the BJP and the EC and claimed that he had caught them “red-handed” by his exposure of “fake voters” in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment in Bangalore.
As the Yatra moved from Arrah towards Patna, BJP cadres showed black flags to Rahul for “derogatory” remarks made by some purported Congress supporters against Modi and his late mother. Rahul stopped his car and offered candies to the BJP protesters as they shouted slogans against him.
