The Congress and BJP continued to hurl grenades of words at each other over the former’s claims of vote-rigging which, the party believed, was rampant in Gujarat. A series of allegations and counter allegations have subsequently ensued, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi backing his claims about BJP stealing votes.
He accused the ruling party of systematic vote theft. He asserted that the scale of the operation surfaced when it was executed in Maharashtra and Haryana on a massive level.
Rahul Gandhi reportedly pointed to a new law approved in 2023. He alleged it was designed to shield the Election Commission from legal scrutiny. Furthermore, he said it was aimed at enabling the BJP to carry out electoral fraud with confidence. “When Union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed a few years ago that the BJP government would be in power for 40-50 years, I found his statement surprising. But he can say so as his party is stealing votes,” Gandhi was quoted as saying.
Asserting the credibility of his claims, he said, “I don’t lie, I only say things when I have facts before me.” He further claimed that no BJP leader, including the Prime Minister, had responded to his accusation regarding vote manipulation in a Karnataka Assembly segment.
The Congress leader expanded his criticism, accusing the government of gradually stripping citizens of their rights: first the vote, then the ration card, after that the land. He pledged that the opposition would resist such actions.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra echoed the sentiment. “Narendra Modi had said during the Lok Sabha elections – Congress will steal your buffalo. But Narendra Modi himself is stealing your vote,” she told media outlets. Describing the vote as “the foundation of India’s democracy” and the people’s “most precious right,” she accused the government of already having “stolen employment, stolen PSUs, stolen from you at every level.”
She warned that Indian citizens will have no identity left and that their rights will be taken away if the public allowed their votes to be stolen.
For a background, the Congress accused the BJP and the Election Commission of colluding to delete opposition supporters’ names and add fake or duplicate entries to skew the results. Gandhi specifically pointed to incidents in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar, highlighting the Mahadevapura constituency in Karnataka, where the Congress claims over one lakh “fake votes” were added to secure a BJP win.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission has dismissed these allegations, calling them “misleading”. It has urged Gandhi to provide a sworn affidavit along with documentary evidence. It reiterated that the electoral roll process is transparent and involves political parties at every stage.
According to the latest reports, the BJP launched a counterattack, asking the Congress to review its own electoral performance. BJP National Spokesperson CR Kesavan reportedly said on social media: “Rahul Gandhi is on a witch hunt tarnishing Constitutional institutions with his votes being stolen slander. Can Rahul Gandhi explain why Congress party’s vote share has either remained the same or has increased? Hope Rahul Gandhi does not duck this question like the affidavit.”
BJP leader Pradeep Bhandari also dismissed the allegations, referencing electoral data to support his argument. “After the Supreme Court, even hard data exposed his claim. If ‘vote chori’ has happened, how has the Congress and its allies’ vote share increased from 39% to 41% since 1989?” he asked.
With no clear answers to the mounting allegations, Gujarat voters remain in the dark.
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