New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi on Sunday offered what he called a heartfelt thank you to the BJP and its allies, for promoting an opposition rally so enthusiastically that its call had reached more people than the organisers could have managed alone.
The rally, against what the opposition calls vote chori, is scheduled for November 1. It is part of a series of protests against the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and against the Chief Election Commissioner, whom the opposition accuses of poll irregularities.
The sarcasm is the easy part. The substance is a claim that the BJP's attacks on the proposed rally have functioned as publicity, and that the opposition intends to bank the reach.
On the same day, the Congress turned to a more technical front. It accused the Election Commission of India of withholding information about the ECINET software, and said the poll body keeps refusing to part with it because disclosure would reveal what the party called a massive, centralised manipulation in the SIR.
These are political allegations made by a party in opposition, not findings of any court or auditor. The Election Commission has not accepted them.
The ground is being laid in the States as much as in Delhi. In Uttarakhand, the BJP has announced a Loktantra Bachao, Arajakta Hatao campaign ahead of Assembly elections due early next year, with a statewide yatra through November covering all 70 constituencies. Committees were named on Sunday, and a foot march is scheduled in Srinagar on October 31 — a day before the opposition's Delhi gathering.
Two calendars are now running in parallel. The BJP's yatra moves through Uttarakhand's districts through November. The opposition's rally fills Ramlila Maidan on November 1.
For voters, the practical question is narrower than either side's framing. Whether the SIR rolls, once finalised, add or drop names in their ward, and whether the objections they filed were heard, will matter more in the booth than any speech in Delhi.
The Congress said its State units are coordinating participation for the rally.