Congress Vs AAP Vs TMC: Rahul Gandhi Protest Outside PM's Residence Triggers All-Out Opposition War

New Delhi: The Congress protest outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official residence in Delhi, intended to draw attention to alleged lapses in competitive examinations, has instead stirred an open confrontation in Opposition ranks and revealed major fault lines between allies. The protest, which began as a unified show of anger over paper leaks and the demand for Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation, turned into a public spat, with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) accusing the Congress of colluding with the BJP and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) rebuking the AAP for undermining the movement.

The flashpoint erupted on Tuesday after Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi was shifted away from the protest site near 7, Lok Kalyan Marg and detained by the police. Although the Congress leaders insisted that the action reflected the government’s intolerance of dissent, the AAP leaders offered a markedly different reading. They alleged that the Narendra Modi administration had responded with unusual speed to the Congress agitation, in contrast to the handling of earlier protests by climate activist Sonam Wangchuk and the self-styled Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) at Jantar Mantar.

Meanwhile, the BJP has moved to capitalise on the discord, portraying the entire episode as proof that Opposition parties are more interested in political theatre than in addressing students’ grievances. As statements flew across social media and television screens, the issue of exam paper leaks was pushed to the background and replaced by a bitter war of words among those who claim to stand on the same side of the aisle.

AAP Alleges ‘BJP-Congress Jugalbandi’

The AAP leaders did not hold back in their criticism of the Congress, with MP Sanjay Singh posting on X that the Prime Minister had orchestrated Rahul Gandhi’s sit-in to “weaken the CJP’s movement". Delhi Assembly’s LoP Atishi went further, stressing that while the government had ignored the CJP and Sonam Wangchuk for weeks, it opened a channel to the Congress within an hour of their protest, pointing to a meeting between Union Minister Jitendra Singh and the Congress MP outside the Prime Minister’s residence. 

In another post, Atishi noted that the same Delhi Police which had stopped CJP protesters “even 100 metres” from Parliament on Monday had allowed Rahul Gandhi to reach the PM's doorstep, claiming this showed that “Congress-BJP is one unit". Party colleague Saurabh Bharadwaj also expressed the same thoughts, branding the protest as part of a “BJP jugalbandi with Congress".

TMC And Congress Fire Back

The AAP’s remarks drew sharp responses from within the Opposition bloc, with Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Kirti Azad replying directly to Sanjay Singh, writing, “This was not expected from you...You have shamed our friendship.” 

Congress leader Srinivas BV also weighed in, asking, “Why are you fuming? Did Malviya write this tweet or Chadha?” in an apparent jab at BJP’s Amit Malviya and AAP’s Raghav Chadha. The online backlash was not limited to politicians. Filmmaker and comedian Varun Grover responded to Atishi’s post with, “Have some shame and delete this,” showing the frustration among some netizens who felt the AAP was diluting a genuine student-led agitation.

BJP Seeks To Own The Narrative

BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya entered the fray with his own interpretation, asserting that the protests were “never about students” and that “no affected student was given a platform". He accused Opposition politicians of frequenting Jantar Mantar in search of relevance and said that the current squabbling between Congress and AAP over credit only proved his point. “No one other than the BJP stands for students,” he wrote.

The protest, which started as a demonstration demanding accountability over the NEET-UG paper leak and action against the police crackdown on protesters, has now snowballed into a full-blown political slugfest. Each party accusing the other of opportunism, the BJP has found an opening to frame both the Congress and the AAP as having politicised a students’ movement for electoral advantage.