India's opposition parties and CJP take separate paths towards shared goal

"We are all standing together. There are no parallel protests. There is one single protest. The mission is to restore democracy in India," Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday (13 October) after hosting a high tea at his residence in New Delhi.

Rahul's statement sought to dispel speculation in Delhi's political circles about the fragmented nature of political forces opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Delhi has witnessed four major protests over the past week, with the opposition Congress and the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Rahul first led a march by opposition lawmakers to the Election Commission headquarters in Delhi, followed by a delegation of MPs meeting President Droupadi Murmu and a march to the Supreme Court. All three actions took place within seven days of 6 October.

Meanwhile, on 10 October, central Delhi was placed under a sweeping security clampdown as CJP planned a march to Jantar Mantar.

The separate marches by opposition parties and CJP had one common demand: the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

However, the protests raised questions in political circles about why the opposition parties and CJP were pursuing separate paths despite sharing the same objective, and why they had not taken joint action.

Despite their shared goal, the Congress and CJP leaderships have neither shared a stage nor joined each other's protests.

The two sides also followed separate courses during the 10 October protests. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal and Left leaders were among those detained by Delhi Police. Rahul Gandhi was in Chennai.

This has raised questions about why the Congress and CJP are maintaining their distance.

Their separate mobilisation was also evident during the NEET examination paper leak controversy in June and July, when they held separate political programmes over the same issue.

CJP organised a march to Parliament that led to clashes with security forces, while the Congress held a separate sit-in outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi's residence, led by Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

The Congress demanded the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, a parliamentary discussion on paper leaks and education reforms, and an apology to students over the police action.

The Congress had raised concerns over examination irregularities well before CJP's march to Parliament. Rahul Gandhi had met students in Kota and Dehradun, while he and Priyanka visited injured students at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi following the police action.

The same pattern is now visible in the protests against Gyanesh Kumar.

There has been an assessment within the Congress leadership that the party should not surrender its own political space when mobilising against the Modi government on any issue.

The Congress and CJP have been wary of each other since CJP emerged as a social media force in mid-May and have maintained their distance.

The tensions surrounding CJP echo the 2011 India Against Corruption movement. The BJP had backed Gandhian Anna Hazare's anti-corruption agitation against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government headed by Manmohan Singh. The Congress later accused the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of exploiting the movement to undermine its government.

The agitation led by Anna Hazare gave rise to Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party, which subsequently rose to power in Delhi and governed the national capital for more than a decade.

AAP, like the Congress's estranged southern ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), has been conspicuous by its absence from the INDIA bloc's protests over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and earlier allegations of examination irregularities. AAP, too, has been maintaining its own agitation against the Modi government.

The Congress and AAP are also rivals for political influence in Delhi and Punjab, where Kejriwal's party is in power.

The Congress recognises that several CJP leaders have their roots in AAP.

But is there a shift now?

Rahul's recent post on X about reclaiming Jantar Mantar as a protest site drew a prompt response from CJP leader Abhijeet Dipke, who thanked the Congress leader for speaking out against the "illegal arrest" of Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das

The exchange raises the question of whether their growing alignment online could translate into joint protests and closer cooperation on the ground.