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A BJP minister accused the INDIA bloc of falling apart, stating that none of its senior leaders are willing to recognize Rahul Gandhi as their leader. Union Minister Shivraj Chouhan made the remarks after the opposition bloc announced a series of programmes to step up its campaign against alleged collusion between the Election Commission and the government.

Chouhan pointed out that Akhilesh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party (SP) chief, and M K Stalin from the DMK were absent from the meeting, as well as Arvind Kejriwal from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Uddhav Thackeray from the Shiv Sena. The Union minister maintained that the INDI alliance is not prepared to accept Rahul as its leader, adding that Congress has failed to back his career despite numerous attempts.

Congress, according to Chouhan, does not have confidence in Rahul, as evidenced by his recent comments at a Congress party meeting, in which he suggested that he should be trusted more than his anti-CAA stance. The meeting resulted in no tangible outcomes or clear vision, according to Chouhan, who claimed it was mainly a reaction to the opposition's persistent electoral losses and aimed to provide excuses for future defeats.

Five states - Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa, and Manipur - are scheduled to hold elections next year, and they are crucial to the opposition parties' effort to revive their challenge to the BJP, which is currently politically dominant following strong showings in several states following its disappointing performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Chouhan criticized Rahul for releasing a video during the Bengal elections in which he claimed BJP was gaining ground due to Mamata Banerjee's mistakes, without blaming her directly. Chouhan urged the INDI alliance, Rahul, and Mallikarjun Kharge to stop questioning courts and politicizing constitutional institutions whenever elections are approaching.

He emphasized that a clean voter list is the cornerstone of democracy and opposing the removal of names of deceased persons, non-citizens, and duplicate entries is against the best interests of democracy.