Congress Party president Rahul Gandhi watched the Republic Day parade sitting in the sixth row at Delhi’s Rajpath. He sat closer to the masses than to dignitaries, and union ministers.

The Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala took to Twitter and said that the Congress scion was deliberately made to sit in the sixth row during the Republic Day Parade.

Along with Rahul Gandhi, Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha was seen sitting beside him watching the parade.

Randeep Surjewala posted what he called a telling image of “petty politics” by the government. “The arrogant rulers deliberately seated Congress president Rahul Gandhi in the fourth row, then, in the sixth row, on Republic Day, discarding all convention. For us celebrating the Republic is above all,” he tweeted in Hindi.

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

A row broke out between Congress and BJP over Rahul Gandhi getting a sixth-row seat with the opposition alleging a deliberate slight and ruling party leaders saying the protocol set by the UPA when it was in office was being followed.

Ten heads of state from ASEAN or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were chief guests at the Republic Day parade. They were seated on a 100-foot wide stage with PM Modi. The Congress alleges that the BJP-led government also ensured that no visiting foreign dignitary met opposition leaders, a convention followed for years.

Congress Party alleged that the gesture “is this (BJP) government’s style as they want to demean the Congress party and its president in front of the ASEAN leaders and people of India – that now he and his party are no more relevant. It’s their (BJP) way of saying so.”

Sonia Gandhi, who was Congress president for 19 years before she handed charge to son Rahul last month, was always seated in the front row. Congress sources say it is the first time since independence that the party’s chief was not assigned a front-row seat.

Later in the evening, at the President Ram Nath Kovind’s Rashtrapati Bhavan, Rahul was made to sit in a selected enclosure along with the parade chief guests. He was also greeted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

When asked about the seating, “I am not bothered about where I am sitting,” Rahul told, also dismissing as “cheap publicity” suggestions that he should buy a public ticket to make a point.