Congress finds support from ‘once-disgruntled’ AAP, Tharoor over ‘vote chori’

The alleged voter fraud has again united Arvind Kejriwal led-AAP with the Congress-led opposition INDIA bloc as AAP leaders including Sanjay Singh attended the dinner hosted by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge here on Monday.

Also, Congress’s own disgruntled leader Shashi Tharoor seems to be back on good terms with the party top brass as he was also seen at the dinner.

Amid row over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar and allegations of "voter fraud" in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the opposition unitedly is mounting pressure on the Election Commission to come clean on the issue.

The move follows a recent show of unity when top INDIA bloc leaders dined at Rahul Gandhi’s residence, where the entire opposition except AAP, who was not invited then, pledged to oppose the electoral rolls’ revision in Bihar and what they called the BJP-Election Commission’s “vote chori model”.

The AAP presence at Kharge’s dinner assumes significance considering that AAP had expressed reservations about joining the INDIA bloc due to differences with the Congress. However, on the SIR issue and “vote chori”, AAP seems to be in alignment with the INDIA bloc.

Also, Tharoor’s presence at the event is significant. The Thiruvananthapuram MP seems to be toeing the Congress line again. Following the Pahalgam terror attack, Tharoor made comments on the India-Pakistan conflict and the diplomatic outreach that were at variance with the stand of the Congress.

Earlier, INDIA-bloc MPs held a protest against the EC after the authorities barred them from taking out a march to Nirvachan Bhawan—EC’s office in the national capital.

The leaders from the Congress who participated in Kharge’s dinner included Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.

NCP SCP chief Sharad Pawar and NCP SCP MP Supriya Sule, Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan, RJD MP Misa Bharti, SP MP Dimple Yadav, and IUML MP ET Muhammed Basheer were among the MPs seen at the event.