Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and party MP Rahul Gandhi’s use of a Batman mask in a symbolic way to represent their protest against the Election Commission of India (ECI) head Gyanesh Kumar has not worked at all, according to BJP leaders.
The matter began yesterday amid the Opposition bloc INDIA’s march in central Delhi, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the voter roll cleanup exercise Special Intensive Revision (SIR). Earlier reporting noted: Thousands take to Delhi streets as Rahul Gandhi, Opposition march to Supreme Court against CEC The Opposition on Monday led thousands of people who flooded central Delhi for three hours in protest against chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, marking one of the largest political mobilisations in recent years that followed two days of police crackdown on agitators. During the protest, some young people came wearing Batman masks and drew Rahul Gandhi’s attention. Taking that opportunity to connect with the Gen-Z, Rahul Gandhi got himself one such mask and wore it while travelling in a bus with Mallikarjun Kharge. He even helped the senior Congress leader to wear the mask.
Earlier reporting noted: The petition — which named the Election Commission of India, Kumar and two other election commissioners as respondents — was flagged for 14 defects, including a ₹ 220 shortfall in court fees, an illegible photocopy of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s identity card and missing vakalatnamas for nine of the 11 petitioners.
Later, posters calling Rahul Gandhi “The Real Life Batman” surfaced at the party’s offices in central Delhi.
Earlier reporting noted: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi led the march from the Constitution Club to Bhagwan Das Road and later walked into the Supreme Court to file a petition demanding an independent, time-bound investigation into decisions allegedly taken unilaterally by Kumar and to suspend the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) pending this inquiry.
In August, during an interaction on Instagram as part of his outreach to students and Gen-Z, Rahul Gandhi was asked whether he was Batman.
The optics, however, do not work in the context of what the Opposition is trying to do by misleading the youth, BJP leaders have said. Union minister Jayant Singh in a post on X said the national capital does not need “a dark superhero and Robin,” referring to the superhero created by the American comic books publisher DC Comics and his sidekick, Robin. “Delhi isn’t Gotham, and we don’t need a dark superhero and Robin,” the Union minister said, pointing at the reputation of the fictional Gotham city from the Batman universe as a crime-infested place. “Let’s just say that no one has ever seen me and Batman in the same room together,” he had replied.
