Rijiju Says Congress's AI Crowd Photo of Ramlila Maidan Was Poorly Made

On Sunday, the day after the INDIA bloc filled Delhi's Ramlila Maidan with protesters, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju turned his attention to a photograph. In a post on X, he accused the Congress of circulating an AI-generated image meant to show the ground packed to capacity, and of doing it badly. The party, he wrote, should at least have prepared the fake picture properly, and he mocked what he called its fake narrative team.

The image he was reacting to had been shared by Congress MP Vamsi Gaddam and other party leaders, and it showed a vast crowd at the venue. Rijiju offered no technical analysis in his post. He asserted that the image was artificially generated and said it was poorly executed. Congress's response to the allegation is not part of the reporting.

The jab landed in the middle of a larger argument over how many people actually came on November 1. The rally was organised to protest alleged irregularities in electoral rolls and the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, exercise. The march began at the Minto Road-Connaught Place junction and moved toward Ramlila Maidan, where, according to ANI, thousands of supporters gathered.

The BJP had already challenged the opposition's numbers. Party MP Sambit Patra said Rahul Gandhi and his team had claimed 10 lakh people would attend. Citing what he saw between 3.30 pm and 4 pm, Patra said that of the 28,000 chairs arranged at the venue, roughly 5,000 to 7,000 stood empty. He also alleged that about 40 per cent of the ground was vacant, and pointed to the background of the scene as proof. These are Patra's claims, relayed by ANI, and the reporting does not independently verify them.

On the stage and in the crowd were some of the opposition's best-known figures: Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha; Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge; former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee; and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Gandhi used his speech to go after Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. He accused the CEC of facilitating alleged vote theft and said action would follow, claiming Kumar would be removed from his post and jailed. He described the protest as the voice of the country, not tied to any one party or leader, and said the opposition would keep defending the Constitution through peaceful, democratic means. He further alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah would not have reached their positions without the CEC's alleged support.

The Indian Youth Congress put its own number on the day. In a statement reported by PTI, the organisation said more than 20,000 of its workers from across the country took part, calling the agitation 'Freedom Struggle 2.0.' It said young workers had travelled thousands of kilometres in answer to its 'Chalo Delhi' call. National president Uday Bhanu Chib said the turnout reflected young people's worries about the credibility of the country's electoral mechanisms, and he repeated the demand that Gyanesh Kumar resign, promising a continued campaign until accountability is ensured.

So the record stands as competing claims: a 10 lakh projection, a 20,000-plus youth contingent, 28,000 chairs with some number empty, and one disputed photograph. The turnout fight is now part of a wider BJP-Congress confrontation over the Election Commission, and the next thing to watch is whether the image's origin is examined beyond a minister's post.