BJP rejects Rahul Gandhi's vote theft charge, cites Congress's long anti-incumbency
The BJP dismissed Rahul Gandhi's vote theft allegations as unsubstantiated, with spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi citing decades of Congress defeats and defending the poll body's voter revision process.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday rejected the Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi's allegations of vote theft, describing him as a "master of deception" with little grasp of electoral politics and saying his claims were unsupported by evidence.
Addressing a press conference, BJP MP and spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi turned the Congress leader's argument about anti-incumbency back on his own party. He said that while Mr. Gandhi had claimed every leader and party faced public discontent except Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the record showed the Congress had been out of power for decades in state after state.
Mr. Trivedi noted that the Congress has not formed a government in Tamil Nadu since 1967 or in West Bengal since 1977, where the Left held power for 34 years before Mamata Banerjee's three successive terms. He added that the party has been out of office in Bihar since 1990, in Uttar Pradesh — the home State of the Gandhi family — since 1989, and in Odisha since 1999, where the BJD governed for 25 years. He also pointed to Madhya Pradesh and Kerala, saying anti-incumbency against the Congress had grown sharper after the entry of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi into active politics.
According to Mr. Trivedi, the Congress once held power for long stretches despite elections marked by the absence of voter ID cards, booth capturing, looted ballot boxes and violence in States such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. He argued that the party now struggles to return to power because polling has become more transparent, with CCTV monitoring, central paramilitary forces replacing local police, and an independent media and judiciary.
He further alleged that anti-incumbency against the Congress and the Gandhi family was now so strong that its leaders could not win their own seats without allies, claiming that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra won the Wayanad seat in Kerala with the Muslim League's support and the Amethi and Rae Bareli seats in Uttar Pradesh with the Samajwadi Party's help.
On the Election Commission, Mr. Trivedi questioned the basis of a news report about communications between the Chief Election Commissioner and the two Election Commissioners, asking whether there was any evidence that a decision had not been taken unanimously. He said the Special Intensive Revision exercise is authorised under the Representation of the People Act, arguing that voter lists require proper verification to establish eligibility, particularly in areas affected by demographic change. He asked whether an 18-year-old with no family records or documents should be enrolled as a voter without verification.
Citing the 2024 Lok Sabha results, he said the Congress's biggest victory came in Assam's Dhubri, where Rakibul Hasan won by 10.25 lakh votes, and claimed the constituency had seen major demographic changes over the past 20 to 25 years.