No more a front-seater: Rahul Gandhi sits in sixth row at Republic Day parade

NEW DELHI: Congress president Rahul Gandhi was seen attending the Republic Day Parade at the Rajpath in Delhi. However, the Congress President was not seated in the front row, but the sixth row.

Gandhi was seen sitting and chatting with senior Congressman and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tweeted about the slight along with a screengrab from Doordarshan. Its hardly easy to spot the new Congress chief in the picture:

मोदी सरकार की ओछी राजनीति जग ज़ाहिर!

कांग्रेस अध्यक्ष श्री राहुल गांधी को गणतंत्र दिवस के राष्ट्रीय पर्व पर अंहकारी शासकों ने सारी परंपराओं को दरकिनार करके पहले चौथी पंक्ति और फिर छठी पंक्ति में जानबूझकर बिठाया।

हमारे लिये संविधान का उत्सव ही सर्व प्रथम है। pic.twitter.com/8bRi017G8J — Randeep S Surjewala (@rssurjewala) January 26, 2018

Congress leaders had on Thursday said that the party president had always been seated in the front row since Independence. The party had complained about the seating arrangement stating that the Narendra Modi government was resorting to "cheap politics".

"We have come to know that the Congress president has been assigned a seat in the fourth row, unlike in past when they used to occupy a seat in the front row during the Republic Day parade," said a senior Congress leader.

The Congress leader had claimed that the move is aimed at "humiliating" the Congress leadership at the public function which will be attended by Heads of Government/State of all the 10 ASEAN countries.

Traditionally the Congress President would be given a seat in the front row as was the case till last year. Former party president Sonia Gandhi has also been given a seat in the front row always.