‘Don’t want to spoil the surprise’: Rahul on INDIA bloc’s next step in CEC-SIR row

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said he does not want to reveal the opposition’s next step amid the CEC-SIR row, saying that revealing the strategy would spoil excitement and sense of surprise for the citizens of the country.“Sooner or later, whether tomorrow, the day after, in three months, six months, a year, or two years, it (protests) will not stop. It will reach the end goal. I cannot tell you exactly how we will get there, because that would spoil the surprise, and we want to maintain the excitement and sense of surprise for you and the country,” Rahul Gandhi told reporters at a joint briefing of opposition parties at his residence, where he hosted them for evening tea.The Lok Sabha leader of opposition asserted that the Congress-led INDIA bloc would continue its fight against the government with the same energy, strength and unity with which it mobilised for the protests against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls exercise.Rahul Gandhi also thanked the Supreme Court and Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, while asserting that the political resistance would continue.“Thank you to the Supreme Court—we have immense respect for the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice of India, and the Indian judicial system. They have a role to play, and we hope they will play it. However, we are political people; no matter what happens, or which institution plays a role or doesn’t, political resistance will continue, people’s resistance will continue, and it will triumph,” the Congress MP added.

Rahul Gandhi’s remarks came a day after he, along with 10 other opposition leaders, filed a plea in the Supreme Court in the matter, naming the Election Commission (EC), CEC Kumar, and the two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, as respondents.Kumar has come under scrutiny since The Indian Express reported last month that Sandhu and Joshi had raised objections at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions they claimed were taken without their knowledge, including those related to the SIR.In response, the EC said differences were “common” in multi-member institutions and maintained that all decisions were ultimately taken unanimously by the three commissioners.The poll body is required to take decisions either unanimously or by a 2-1 majority.Since becoming CEC in 2025, a year after his appointment to the commission, Kumar has repeatedly faced allegations of favouring the ruling BJP.