New Delhi:
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).
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.
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.
Delhi isn't Gotham, and we don't need a dark superhero and robin…
— Jayant Singh (@jayantrld) October 12, 2026
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.
"Let's just say that no one has ever seen me and Batman in the same room together," he had replied.
Later, posters calling Rahul Gandhi "The Real Life Batman" surfaced at the party's offices in central Delhi.