Opposition parties led by the Congress on Thursday took out a ‘Tiranga March’ (tricolor march) from Parliament House to Vijay Chowk against the alleged “attack on democracy” by the ruling BJP.

MPs belonging to Opposition parties such as the DMK, Samajwadi Party, RJD, Shiv Sena (UBT), AAP and NCP, and from the Left, besides the Congress held the national flag as they marched from Parliament House towards Vijay Chowk while claiming that India’s “democracy is under attack” from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP.

The march was led by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge from Parliament’s gate number 1 where the parliamentarians from like-minded Opposition parties gathered as Sonia Gandhi was also seen holding the tricolor.

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Talking to reporters after the ‘Tiranga March’ Kharge claimed that the BJP was to blame for the washout in Parliament as the ruling party was itself “creating a disturbance” by disallowing discussion.

Kharge said a Rs 50 lakh crore budget was passed in 12 minutes without any discussion and asked why the PM Modi-led government was hesitating in forming a JPC to investigate the Adani issue.

Earlier, the Opposition leaders also boycotted the customary tea hosted by the Speaker after the Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die at the conclusion of the Budget session of Parliament.

The second leg of the Budget Session has been rocked by protests and hardly any business has been conducted in either House of the Parliament as the Opposition presses its demand for a Joint Parliamentary Probe (JPC) into the Adani Group stock triggered by the damning Hindenburg Research report back in January and while the ruling BJP has been adamant in its demand of an apology former Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi over his remarks on Indian democracy in the United Kingdom.

The Opposition has been unitedly demanding a JPC probe into the Adani issue in both Houses of the Parliament.

The protests by the Congress and Opposition have intensified since Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha after being convicted and sentenced by a court in Gujarat’s Surat in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his “Modi surname” remark.

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Congress scion Rahul Gandhi is a modern-day Mahatma Gandhi, Chhattisgarh Congress MLA Amitesh Shukla has said, as he drew parallels between the father of the nation and the former Wayanad MP whose disqualification from the Lok Sabha has sparked nationwide protests from Congress cadres.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Shukla termed Rahul Gandhi as the “Mahatma Gandhi of modern India”, as he claimed similarities between the two figures.

Amitesh Shukla who won with the highest margin of votes in the 2018 Assembly elections in the state, drew parallels between the Gandhi scion and father of the nation who led India’s independence movement against the British colonial rule.

Shukla claimed that Rahul Gandhi undertook the Bharat Jodo Yatra in the same vein as Mahatma Gandhi’s historical Dandi March against the British.

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Calling Rahul Gandhi ‘Rashtriya Putra’ (son of the nation), Shukla said he is making such a claim very responsibly as he himself belongs to a family of freedom fighters and based on things he heard about Mahatma Gandhi from his father Shyama Charan Shukla- the former chief minister of undivided Madhya Pradesh as well as his uncle and senior Congress leader Vidya Charan Shukla, he felt there are a “lot of similarities” between the Mahatma and the former Congress president.

Claiming more similarities, he said that like Mahatma Gandhi, Rahul could have laid claim to the Prime Minister’s post in 2004 and 2008, but for the greater good, chose not to.

The legislator further claimed that like Mahatma Gandhi’s famous ‘Dandi March’, Rahul Gandhi also trekked across the country during his Bharat Jodo Yatra and interacted with the masses throughout his march.

Shukla said Rahul Gandhi “fearlessly speaks the truth” on the Adani issue backed by statistics in the same way Mahatma Gandhi brought down the British Empire with his weapon of truth.

Meanwhile, in a sharp retort to MLA Shukla’s comparisons between Rahul Gandhi and the Mahatma, BJP MP Santosh Pandey said that Chhattisgarh Congress has become mentally and intellectually bankrupt.

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Congress on Thursday released the party’s second list of 41 candidates for the upcoming elections in Karnataka which are scheduled to be held on May 10 next month.

In its list, the Congress has also marked a seat for Sarvodaya Karnataka Party as the regional outfit’s Darshan Puttannaiah will contest from the Melukote assembly constituency in the poll-bound state.

Karnataka goes to polls on May 10 and results for the 224-member Assembly will be announced on May 13.

The Congress had earlier released a list of 100 candidates and with the fresh list of 41 candidates and one for its regional ally, the grand old party has so far finalized 142 candidates for the Karnataka Assembly Elections.

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An official statement by the Congress said the latest list was finalized at a meeting of Central Election Committee on Wednesday chaired by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge which was also was attended by Congress scion Rahul Gandhi and other top brass of the party from Karnataka, including former chief minister Siddaramaiah, state chief DK Shivakumar and All India Congress Committee in-charge for the state, Randeep Surjewala.

The Congress, which seeks to oust BJP from power in Karnataka, recently claimed that the saffron party is facing a “mass exodus” in the poll-bound state.

Speaking at a presser, senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala yesterday claimed having “authentic information” about the BJP being unable to choose its own candidates in the upcoming Karnataka elections due to a “mass exodus” taking place in the party.

Citing “authentic information”, Surjewala claimed that the BJP is not able to select candidates as the right-wing party’s ministers and MLAs are refusing to contest. He claimed that 10 BJP MLAs, MLCs, ex-MLAs and ex-MLCs, their boards and corporation chairmen have resigned in dozens and joined the Congress.

The Congress MP alleged that due to “exodus” in the BJP, federal agencies have been deployed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP regime at the centre to conduct raids against Congress leaders and candidates listed for the Karnataka Assembly polls.

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