• Source:JND

Republic Day 2026: Leaders of the Congress party launched scathing attacks at the BJP-ruled centre government over the seating arrangement for the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and other Congress leaders during the Republic Day celebration.

Senior leaders of the Congress party were allotted seats in the third row during the Republic Day celebration at Kartavya Path on Monday.

The party leaders have alleged that the seating arrangement was a breach of protocol and took out a photo from 2014 showing the seating arrangement for LK Advani.

Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala strongly criticised the move, calling the government ‘plagued by an inferiority complex’. "Does such treatment of the leader of the opposition in the country meet the standards of any decorum, tradition, and protocol? This only reveals the frustration of a government plagued by an inferiority complex," he said in a post on X.

Intentionally Done To Insult Rahul Gandhi: Congress Leader

Expressing anger over the move and questioning the intention behind making LoP sit in the third row, MP Manickam Tagore alleged that the government intentionally did this to ‘insult’ Gandhi.

"Look at where LK Advani ji was seated then. Why this protocol mess-up now? Is it because Modi and Shah want to insult Kharge ji and Rahul ji,” Tagore wrote, sharing a photo from 2014 which shows Advani and Arun Jately seated in the first row as Sonia Gandhi.

In 2014, Arun Jaitley served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, and Sushma Swaraj was the opposition leader in the Lok Sabha. LK Advani was neither the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha nor the Lok Sabha in 2014.

How BJP Reacted To Allegations

"Rahul Gandhi is not worried about sitting in the third row; he is trying to deflect from being caught on his phone while the country was celebrating the Brahmos missiles at Kartavya Path," BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari posted on X, accusing Congress of Politicising the event.

The row also served as a reminder of the last Republic Day celebrations, when the BJP had slammed Kharge and Gandhi for skipping the event.

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What Is The Protocol

Seating at state ceremonies is allotted as per the table of Procedence issued by the President’s Secretariat. According to the Table of Precedence, the seating arrangement of the Leader of Opposition comes in 7th rank after the President, Vice-President, Prime Minister, Governors, former Presidents, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Cabinet Ministers, Chief Ministers, and former Prime Ministers.


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