NEW DELHI: A day after Rahul Gandhi and senior Congress leaders staged a sit-in protest outside Prime Minister Modi's residence over the NEET row, the Congress came under fire from its INDIA bloc allies for not taking all members into confidence before the protest.
The issue came up at the INDIA bloc meeting on Wednesday morning, where CPI Rajya Sabha MP P Sandosh Kumar questioned why most alliance partners were not informed about Tuesday's demonstration.
While Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule had joined the protest, several other INDIA bloc parties were left out. According to sources, Kumar said that there should have been more coordination among the partners as the parties have been protesting on the issue collectively.
Responding to the criticism, Rahul Gandhi told the meeting that the dharna was not planned. He said the decision to protest outside the Prime Minister's residence was taken suddenly after the police action against students protesting over the alleged NEET paper leak.
Kumar pointed out that he had received a message from the Congress inviting him to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's birthday celebration on Tuesday afternoon, only to be informed later that the programme had been cancelled.
Most Congress MPs were also clueless about the protest on Tuesday as they received a message from AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal asking them to reach 10, Rajaji Marg at 3 pm to formally greet Congress President on his birthday. Later the MPs marched to the PM's residence.
Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav and several Congress leaders were detained by the Delhi Police before being released later in the day. Congress leaders maintained that there was no attempt to sideline allies.
Incidentally, when the issue of extending support to the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) came up at a previous INDIA bloc meeting, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh is learnt to have opposed the move.