Amid polls, Cong leaders snub INDIA bloc ban to give exclusive interviews to ‘boycotted’ anchors

Nearly a month after the opposition’s Congress-led INDIA alliance “blacklisted” 14 anchors for their alleged “hateful” debates and anti-opposition narratives — two top leaders of the Congress have given “exclusive” interviews to two of these anchors. 

On the campaign trail, Madhya Pradesh’s Congress chief ministerial candidate Kamal Nath gave an interview to Times Now’s Navika Kumar. Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh’s senior Congress leader and former deputy chief minister TS Singh Dev was interviewed by Aaj Tak’s Chitra Tripathi.

Both Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are set to go to polls on November 7 and November 17, respectively.  

Both Navika and Chitra were on the list of the 14 blacklisted anchors that the INDIA bloc released on September 13. After releasing the list, the alliance’s coordination committee had said the alliance parties will not send their representatives on the shows and events of these anchors. 

The list also included the names of Aman Chopra, Amish Devgan and Anand Narasimhan of News18; Sudhir Chaudhary of Aaj Tak; Gaurav Sawant and Shiv Aroor of India Today; Prachi Parashar of India TV; Arnab Goswami of Republic TV; Rubika Liyaquat of Bharat 24; Sushant Sinha of Times Now; Aditi Tyagi of Bharat Express; and Ashok Shrivastav of DD News.

On November 3, Kumar posted pictures from her interview with Kamal Nath on a chopper on X. 

Meanwhile, TS Singh Dev’s interview with Tripathi was broadcasted on Aaj Tak on October 30.

Newslaundry reached out to KK Mishra, Congress Madhya spokesperson and Nath’s media advisor Peeyush Babele. We also reached out to Sushil Anand Shukla, Congress Chhattisgarh spokesperson and the office of TS Singh Dev. This report will be updated on receiving a response.