With only one year to go for the general elections of 2024, the opposition parties in India are seeing Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification as an MP as potential glue to keep the so-called opposition unity intact. On March 27, a meeting of senior opposition leaders commenced at Mallikarjun Kharge’s house in New Delhi, but as Pratap Bhanu Mehta says, this opposition unity is more like a chimera at the moment, meaning it is more performative than real.
While it is yet unclear if this unity will hold, the disqualification has certainly galvanised the opposition.
In this video, The Wire meets non-Congress opposition party leaders to understand their reaction to the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi.
“This is a daylight murder of democracy, we need to re-group and fight for the principles,” says Shiv Sena (UT)’s Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi during the interview.
Commenting on the process of disqualification, Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s Tikender Panwar said, “Thanks to Modi Saab, he is transforming Rahul into a Gandhi.”
While the Samajwadi Party spokesperson Raj Bhati shared a mixed response on Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification, other leaders – DMK’s Lok Sabha MP Kalanidhi Veeraswamy and the spokesperson of RJD Nawal Kishore – stood firmly behind the Congress party on this issue.
Watch the video below to know what the leaders had to say on the issue of opposition unity.