'What about Tamil Nadu?' DMK questions Rahul Gandhi's SIR stand
What's the story
The DMK party has questioned why Rahul Gandhi hasn't supported Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge's statement calling for the dissolution of the state government elected after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process. "Why is he not endorsing Kharge-jis statement that all State Governments elected after SIR should be dissolved? Is he afraid of Vijay to speak about SIR in Tamil Nadu?" DMK's Saravanan Annadurai asked Gandhi, who led opposition protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the SIR on Tuesday.
Alliance rift
Congress part of ruling alliance in Tamil Nadu
"What is the stand of Rahul Gandhi with regard to the deletions through SIR in Tamil Nadu?" Annadurai asked before calling Gandhi a "duplicitous man."
The Congress is currently part of the ruling alliance in Tamil Nadu, a deal that was made after the April assembly elections.
Before this alliance, the Congress had ended its partnership with the DMK, which led to the latter's exit from the INDIA Bloc.
DMK
DMK, AAP skipped Tuesday's protest
The DMK, along with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), also skipped the INDIA bloc's "Save Democracy" march.
But both parties assured support for protests against CEC Kumar and SIR processes.
"We are fighting this battle in our own way," AAP leader Sanjay Singh said.
While other alliance leaders such as Akhilesh Yadav (SP) and Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena UBT) joined the protest, the AAP and DMK chose to chart their own course away from Congress leadership, per reports.
Protest details
Gandhi leads protest against CEC, SIR process
Gandhi is leading an opposition protest in Delhi against Chief Election Commissioner Kumar and the SIR process.
They had started their march from Parliament's Makar Dwar toward Nirvachan Sadan, the Election Commission headquarters, but they were stopped at Akashvani Bhavan.
"We don't have any problem with protesting here (Akashvani Bhavan)...We will continue our protests here...If they (Delhi Police) are uncomfortable with us protesting here, they can provide us with another place...The Constitution allows us to lodge a protest..." he said.