Mallikarjun Kharge Highlights Sonia Gandhi's Editorial On PM Modi

Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition and party president Mallikarjun Kharge highlighted an editorial by Sonia Gandhi in a leading English daily in which she claimed PM Modi has not "reflected" on the message given by voters in the recent parliamentary elections.

"'There is no evidence that the Prime Minister has come to terms with the electoral outcome or has reflected on the message sent to him by voters', writes CPP Chairperson, Smt. Sonia Gandhi," posted Mr Kharge on social media platform X today.

He also attached the news article "Preaching Consensus, Provoking Confrontation" written by Sonia Gandhi.

In her editorial, Mrs Gandhi claimed that the PM's third term was not part of the electoral outcome as there is no evidence to prove it.

Notably, in the 2024 general elections, BJP's victory tally was much lower than its 2019 tally of 303 and the 282 seats it had won in 2014. The Congress, on the other hand, registered a strong growth, winning 99 seats compared to 52 that it had won in 2019 and 44 seats in 2014.

On Friday during Rajya Sabha proceedings, Mr Kharge and other opposition members entered the well of the House resulting in the adjournment of the Upper House. Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said that he was pained over the conduct of Mr Kharge.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said that the Opposition was trying to draw the government's attention to concerns of lakhs of students who have appeared in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) exam with CBI now probing the allegations of paper leak.

"It is his (Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar's) mistake...I went inside to draw his attention. But even then he was not looking... I was drawing attention. He was only looking at the ruling party. When I draw his attention as per the rules, he should look at me, but instead, he deliberately ignored me to insult me. So what was left for me? So to draw attention I would have to either go inside or shout very loudly. So I will definitely say that it is Chairman Sahab's mistake. I say that he should not do this and should maintain the dignity of this Rajya Sabha...There have been such big scams, NEET exam, the paper has been leaked, lakhs of children are worried," Mr Kharge told ANI.

"So to draw attention to the problem of people, we asked for a specific discussion. We did not want to disturb anyone, we only wanted to raise the issues of the students...But he did not give it a chance, did not even pay attention to it and that is why we had to do this," Kharge added.

The first session of the 18th Lok Sabha began on June 24 with new members taking oath. The Rajya Sabha session started on June 27.