Rahul Gandhi Calls CEC Gyanesh Kumar a 'Traitor', Demands Resignation; BJP Hits Back

Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Thursday launched a sharp attack on the BJP and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging that votes are being stolen and that this renders laws passed by MPs illegal. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, he called Kumar a traitor, demanded his resignation, and said the Congress would not stay silent while democracy in India is destroyed.

Gandhi pointed to reports that objections raised by Election Commissioners, including on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls, were being ignored. He said two Election Commissioners had questioned Kumar, and that his own questions had similarly been disregarded. "Gyanesh Kumar must resign immediately. What you have done is an act against the Indian nation. This is an attack on the Constitution of India," he said, adding that those responsible would be punished eventually. He also advised Kumar to "turn approver", calling such a step an act of nationalism.

The Congress leader argued that the chain linking the vote, the Constitution, laws and institutions had been broken. "If the vote has been destroyed, then our Constitution has been destroyed... If our Constitution has been destroyed, our laws are illegal. And if our laws are illegal, our institutions are meaningless," he said, describing a progression from vote theft to the theft of laws and institutions. He claimed it was certain that the 2024 general elections and Assembly elections had been rigged, and that MPs sitting in Parliament were there on the basis of a stolen vote.

Gandhi said the Congress had long been puzzled by the disappearance of anti-incumbency for the BJP. Citing statements by Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the BJP would remain in power for 30 years and that the NDA would cross 400 seats in 2024, he said no leader could be so confident in a democracy given what he called a fundamental force. He recalled that Indira Gandhi faced massive anti-incumbency within a year or two of her popularity peak after the 1971 Bangladesh war, and noted that Haryana, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh had all swung between parties over the years. "We cannot understand how anti-incumbency disappears," he said, adding that the party had concluded the answer was vote theft.

The BJP rejected the allegations. Party spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari called the press conference a damp squib and described Gandhi as a frustrated leader unable to win people's support through democratic means. "Loktantra ki chor Congress is frustrated as the Gandhi-Vadra family is democratically made to sit in the Opposition by the people of India," he said.