Congress leader Rahul Gandhi stressed the need for Opposition parties to act collectively, telling the meeting that they were all affected by the issues being raised and should pursue the campaign together.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also spoke about his own electoral experience. He alleged that around 1.9 lakh voters had been removed from the electoral roll in his Gulbarga constituency before the 2019 Lok Sabha election, in which he suffered his first defeat after several decades in electoral politics. The allegation could not be independently verified.
TMC chief Mamata Banerjee raised concerns over the Election Commission’s handling of voter registration and the SIR exercise, while referring to developments in West Bengal. She also called for opposition parties outside the INDIA bloc to be brought into a broader campaign on electoral issues and said she had spoken to BJD leader Naveen Patnaik about the matter.
Banerjee also criticised CEC Gyanesh Kumar during the meeting, referring to him as “Vanish Kumar”, according to opposition sources.
The need to expand the campaign beyond political parties was repeatedly emphasised. CPI(M) general secretary M.A. Baby called for civil society groups to be involved, while other leaders stressed the importance of reaching voters and young people.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav spoke about the Bihar election and alleged that despite receiving a strong response during campaigning, he and Rahul Gandhi had been “looted”. He drew a parallel with the TMC’s concerns in West Bengal.
CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya called for greater participation by young people in the political and electoral process and raised a proposal to lower the voting age from 18 to 16.
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