00:00Full Congress's General Secretary of the TMC, Abhishek Banerjee, will also be participating in today's lunch.
00:05The India Bloc is trying to get senior leaders of other parties as well,
00:09so that it does not look like simply a Congress protest, but a united India Bloc opposition protest.
00:15So remember that earlier, while Mamata Banerjee had participated in the earlier march,
00:21Akhilesh Yadar was seen on the next day, and now after a lunch at Moet's,
00:25we are going to have, possibly as it appears for now, going by the pattern,
00:30that there could be a protest again, in cannot place.
00:32Amit Bhardwaj is joining us on that.
00:35Amit, TMC joining in, Abhishek Banerjee, Mawa Moetra has made allegations of harassment and more of the protest,
00:42but there are charges being faced by the Congress party as well,
00:45that they are misbehaving with police personnel.
00:47So how do you think this protest is going to be?
00:50Why is the TMC joining?
00:51And I'm very curious to know, how much of the periphery will the leaders be even allowed to be in?
01:02Pooja, my sources have confirmed me.
01:04Turanmul Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee is all set to join today's lunch.
01:09He was part of the march that was led by the opposition party MPs from parliament
01:14to, you know, Election Commission of India, which was obviously stopped at Akashwani Bhavan itself.
01:19But today, Abhishek Banerjee will once again be part of this particular, you know, lunch that has been planned at
01:26Moets.
01:26I'm given to understand that Trinmul Congress MPs will be there.
01:29But in order to give an impression that this is not just, you know, yet another protest
01:34where only Congress party is aggressively fighting,
01:36but they want to put out a picture of a united India block front.
01:41And that is why Abhishek Banerjee is going to attend today's lunch.
01:44And it is even more important to note that tomorrow is a very crucial day
01:49because I'm given to understand that several of the top leaders of the India block
01:52could be joining tomorrow's protest.
01:54So before that, Abhishek Banerjee is going to be part of today's lunch
01:58as well as the proposed protest that's on the, you know, that has been scheduled.
02:04As well as the Samajwadi party is ensuring that Rajiv Rai,
02:08a senior MP from the party joins today's lunch and which is to be followed by protest.
02:15Back to you, Puja.
02:16But tell me this, Amit, the TMC is joining in, the Congress is leading this protest.
02:20Aren't they convinced at all with what the government is saying,
02:23that the SIR is a much needed exercise, no protocols have been broken,
02:27there is no malpractice and the CEC is not going anywhere?
02:35Puja, you know, the opposition parties also understand that CEC Gyanesh Kumar is not going anywhere
02:41because what are the possible ways?
02:44You impeach him, you can bring impeachment petition, but you don't have the numbers.
02:48You can, or Mr. Gyanesh Kumar resigns himself.
02:52That is not, that does not look like a possibility right now.
02:58But the opposition parties are also very confident.
03:00They are saying, I'd spoken to senior leaders within the India bloc
03:03and they told me that, look, if you go back to what happened with Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan,
03:08the government had maintained a posture that everything is fine and Mr. Pradhan is not going.
03:13But that resignation happened, you know, even before, evening before that resignation,
03:19nobody could actually sense within the government that he's going.
03:21But it happened.
03:22So that is why opposition believes that whatever allegations they were making for months,
03:27Maharashtra, Haryana, Delhi, West Bengal, all these allegations have been vindicated.
03:32They stand vindicated because in the recent revelations,
03:36all these technical issues have been actually, seems to be, you know,
03:40flagged within the Election Commission of India as well.
03:42And that is why they are trying to create a narrative optics at least,
03:47so that this trickles down to the common man sitting in some town or a village of India,
03:53that there's something wrong within the Election Commission of India.
03:56But the government is certainly saying that if you have problem, you know,
04:00there are platforms and procedures.
04:02Why don't you go there?
04:03The BJP, Bharatiya Janata Party, in a political front, is attacking the Congress Party,
04:07saying that even at places where the elections are happening through a ballot paper,
04:12the Congress Party has not been able to make it through.
04:15They have cited a student election like Delhi University as well.
04:19The Election Commission has put things on record.
04:21But the bigger question that opposition party MPs are also saying is that
04:24why these election commissioners are not coming forward and stating...
04:28Amit, stay on with me.
04:29You know, their side of the story.
04:31I think I also suggest to you to grab a meal before they come for lunch
04:35and then get busy with protests because our reporters have been working really hard
04:39since the past few days and the protest is turning unpredictable.
04:43Amit Bhardwaj is tracking all the latest on that.
04:45The Bharatiya Janata Party has been asking that rather introspect,
04:49why are you losing elections than indulging in these photo optics?
04:52But it's lunch politics 2.0, again in National Capital.
04:56I would say 3.0 after remember what happened in July
04:59when there was a lunch at Malik Arjun Khairge's residence
05:01and then a flash protest outside Prime Minister Modi's residence.
05:05Day after a massive showdown in Delhi,
05:07India Bloc right now looks united.
05:09They're right now officially meeting today for lunch.
05:13There is no reference to a protest.
05:15Congress-shee Malik Arjun Khairge will host the India Bloc leaders,
05:19which means basically beyond the Congress Party for the lunch
05:22at a very popularly known eatery and restaurant where it's in Connaught Place.
05:26This is the second such gathering in two days
05:28and therefore it's only a pattern now that appears to be
05:31that after the lunch, they'll head out for a protest.
