The BJP on Tuesday rejected Rahul Gandhi’s “vote chori” allegations, accusing him of undermining constitutional institutions. Its response came amid continuing demands from INDIA bloc leaders and student groups for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation.
Union minister Piyush Goyal, in a press conference, cited the subsequent political roles of former chief election commissioners T.N. Seshan and M.S. Gill to question Congress’s criticism of the poll panel.
Goyal accused Rahul of “childish behaviour” and double standards, arguing that the NDA government had allowed the Election Commission to function independently and had not offered political positions to election commissioners as a reward for their work.
“If we look at Rahul Gandhi's track record, which he conveniently ignores, we find that the Congress appointed a Chief Election Commissioner as a candidate on its party ticket, inducted another into the Union Cabinet, and appointed two Chief Election Commissioners as Governors,” Goyal said.
He cited Seshan, who served as chief election commissioner from 1990 to 1996 and was fielded by the Congress against BJP veteran L.K. Advani in Gandhinagar in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections.
“The Congress used to praise his integrity and fearlessness. But what did it do afterwards? In 1999, it gave him the opportunity to contest on a Congress ticket against L.K. Advani,” Goyal said, questioning whether the move amounted to a political reward.
Goyal also cited M.S. Gill, who served as chief election commissioner from 1996 to 2001 and later joined the Congress, becoming a Union minister. He questioned the decision to confer the Padma Vibhushan on Gill in 2000, while he was still serving as chief election commissioner, asking: “Was this not an inducement? Was it not, in effect, a form of bribery?”
However, Gill received the award when Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s BJP-led NDA government was in power.
Goyal further accused the Congress of refusing to remove an election commissioner despite a complaint from the chief election commissioner that the official was acting like a Congress agent.
‘Hawa hawai leader’
BJP MP Anurag Thakur on Monday accused Rahul Gandhi of using protests and allegations of “vote chori” to discredit constitutional institutions and India’s image abroad.
“Rahul Gandhi is a ‘hawa hawai’ leader. His entire style of politics follows the same pattern — hollow statements, baseless allegations, hollow actions, hollow protests and hollow facts,” Thakur said at a news conference at the BJP headquarters.
He accused Rahul of repeatedly shifting his allegations between the Election Commission, electronic voting machines, and the chief election commissioner.
“Rahul ji, the country needs truth, not noise. It needs evidence, not allegations. It needs clear answers, not political statements,” Thakur said, challenging Gandhi to identify the specific rules or laws allegedly violated by the poll panel.
Thakur also claimed that the Supreme Court had made it clear that Rahul could not turn the judiciary into a battleground for political disputes. He accused the Congress of trying to intimidate the judiciary by threatening street protests if its demands were not met.
Responding to Rahul’s criticism of security restrictions in Delhi and his allegation that the government was protecting Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Thakur accused opposition leaders of behaving inappropriately towards police personnel and women during protests.
"The slogan 'I am a woman, I can fight' now seems to have become 'I am a woman, I can beat women'," he said.
"Some are elbowing people, some are hitting them with their hands and others are doing different things. This is the situation they have created. The Congress appears frustrated and disappointed," he added.
He also targeted the Nehru-Gandhi family, accusing the Congress of treating the country as its personal property and recalling the Emergency to question its democratic credentials.
Thakur challenged Rahul to substantiate his allegations of electoral malpractice, saying that disagreement with the Election Commission was legitimate but accusations of wrongdoing required evidence.
“If you like the mandate, it is democracy; if you lose an election, is it vote theft?” he asked.
BJP MP Jagdambika Pal also criticised Rahul Gandhi ahead of a meeting of INDIA bloc leaders over high tea on Tuesday, questioning his approach to the Election Commission controversy.
“Today he is sometimes calling for tea parties, sometimes for dinner at a restaurant in Connaught Place. I think he’s doing this to gather leaders,” Pal said, accusing him of creating “chaos” and misleading the country to defame constitutional institutions.