Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday mobilised the largest rally of Opposition parties since the Modi government assumed office. Gandhi led a delegation of 14 Opposition parties, many of them turf rivals, from Parliament House to Rashtrapati Bhavan and urged President Pranab Mukherjee to “intervene“ and stop the Modi government from legislating “anti-farmer and anti-poor“ amendments to the land acquisition bill enacted by the erstwhile UPA regime.
The move presents the Modi regime its first serious united Opposition offensive from rivals inside Parliament and on the streets with many watching if this would lead to a larger re alignment of Opposition parties.
After the solidarity march to Manmohan Singh's residence six days ago, the Congress chief who is not in the pink of health, advertised how she was going the extra mile to shoulder the responsibility to retain her party's and Opposition's fighting spirit after her son and party veep Rahul Gandhi chose to be away on a mysterious sabbatical.The line-up made some participants reminiscent of Gandhi hitting Delhi streets ahead of 2004 Lok Sabha polls to prop up the UPA-Left coalition arrangement. Others felt it was a bit early to say whether this would trigger another anti-BJP national front. Gandhi was joined by Manmohan Singh, Ahmed Patel, Digvijaya Singh, AK Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Mallikarjun Kharge, Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ambika Soni, Kumari Selja, Vayalar Ravi, Jairam Ramesh, Mohsina Kidwai and other MPs Other party MPs who were part of the march included Sharad Yadav (JD-U), Sitaram Yechury (CPM) Ramgopal Yadav (SP), Kalyan Banerjee (Trinamool) Tariq Anwar (NCP) and MPs of RJD, DMK, AAP , CPI, JD(S), KCM, IUML and INLD. Three notable absentees were BSP -which excused itself citing reluctance to be seen with SP -BJD & AIADMK. As scores of cameramen whirled around the advancing delegation, it raised slogans against the Modi regime and the land bill.
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