5 takeaways from INDIA bloc’s Ramlila rally: From Congress’s Punjab message to AAP to TMC clarifying position

The INDIA alliance on Sunday came together in a massive show of strength at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi, with the message that anti-BJP forces need to unite to “save democracy” in the country and that the Constitution would be in danger if the Modi government were voted back to power.

Despite calls for unity in the run-up to the event, the leaders of different parties presented their agenda from the stage. While Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi targeted the Modi government for freezing the Congress’s bank accounts and accused the Narendra Modi government of trying to fix the election in the BJP’s favour, their Bihar ally Tejashwi Yadav claimed that his government with the JD(U) — now in the NDA — Congress, and Left parties had generated five lakh jobs in 17 months.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Sagarika Ghose alleged the Union government of trying to “finish the federal structure” and asked why it was not releasing funds meant for the welfare of the poor in West Bengal, a matter the ruling party in the state has raised frequently over the past two years. Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav asserted his idea of “PDA (Pichhda, Dalit and Alpsankhyak)”.

At the same time, Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren defended his predecessor Hemant Soren and said the “Yuva Samrat” would never “bow down”. Like Soren, AAP leader and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann focused on his party chief and Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest, calling him an idea that cannot be imprisoned. Kejriwal’s wife Sunita in her speech targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over her husband’s arrest.

A day before the rally, the Congress emphasised that the event would not be a “person-centric” one. On Sunday, the party