Rahul Gandhi : “We will survive only if we stay united; if we divide, we will fall.”
NEW DELHI : During the INDIA alliance meeting on Monday, Rahul Gandhi conveyed the message, “We will survive only if we stay united; if we divide, we will fall,” emphasizing that there is safety in unity. He warned that to achieve this, allies must recognize the need to work together to confront the challenge posed by their main rival, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). At the meeting, Rahul Gandhi cautioned allies against “undermining one another” and urged them to fight unitedly against the BJP “for the sake of the country and the Constitution.”
In his approximately 15-minute speech, the opposition leader expressed disappointment over the lack of support from some allies on issues such as alleged “vote theft” and took aim at parties that, despite being part of the alliance, frequently criticize and target the Congress. According to sources, parties like Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and the Left faced criticism.
A senior member of the INDIA alliance stated, “Rahul Gandhi stands at the forefront of this battle. He has been deprived of the privileges usually easily available in traditional politics. He has not encountered normal democratic conditions—such as institutional impartiality, media diversity, economic parity, and the equal application of the law. Yet, our resolve is strong, and we are fighting against unbridled power.”
The alliance agreed to formally submit a letter to the Chief Justice of India regarding serious concerns about the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process and alleged manipulation of voter lists. The alliance intends to hand over this letter to the Chief Justice at the earliest. The Congress leader argued that defeating the BJP is “not difficult”; citing the previous Lok Sabha elections, he emphasized that the opposition must avoid weakening itself through constant infighting. The BJP won 240 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, a drop of 63 seats from the 303 it secured in 2019. The Congress reached a tally of 99 seats in 2024, up from the 52 seats it won in 2019. A recent example of unity in the Lok Sabha was the opposition coming together to defeat the Centre’s delimitation bill.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said, “On April 17, 2026, we demonstrated our unity and solidarity in the Lok Sabha in a very decisive manner, when we all stood firmly together to defeat the Modi government’s ill-intentioned bills regarding delimitation. Now, we must strengthen that same spirit and move forward to tackle the various political, economic, social, and foreign policy challenges facing the country due to the Modi government’s mismanagement.”This meeting of the opposition alliance took place roughly a month after elections were held in four states. The BJP formed governments in Assam and Bengal. The Congress won in Kerala. Superstar Vijay achieved a major victory in Tamil Nadu. The bloc, formed three years ago, has decided to meet every two months. The next meeting is scheduled for August in Hyderabad.
The meeting, held at the capital’s Constitution Club, was attended by Congress’s Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, TMC’s Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, and Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Uddhav Thackeray, alongside leaders from Leftist and smaller parties. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are not part of this discussion, having decided to distance themselves from the alliance. AAP has already publicly parted ways with the alliance, while the DMK decided to boycott the meeting after the Congress broke the alliance in Tamil Nadu and joined a government led by the TVK.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge stated that non-BJP governments are facing discrimination. He targeted the central government over the rising prices of essential commodities. Apart from inflation, energy prices have surged significantly due to the ongoing war in the Middle East, impacting the daily lives of citizens. Kharge also stated that “gross mismanagement of the examination system” has dashed the hopes of lakhs of aspirants. The NEET-UG exam was cancelled following a massive paper leak, and a decision was made to conduct a re-examination. This controversy sparked widespread protests across the country, necessitated Supreme Court intervention, and led to numerous arrests. The opposition had demanded the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
