News Brief
BJP Accuses Rahul Gandhi, Congress Of Undermining Democratic Institutions After Haryana ‘Vote Theft’ Claims
Union minister Kiren Rijiju addresses a press conference at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday hit back at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for what it called an attempt to discredit India’s democratic institutions after he alleged large-scale voter fraud in Haryana, the Hindustan Times reported.
At a press conference in New Delhi, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju accused Gandhi and the Congress of colluding with anti-India forces to undermine public trust in the Election Commission of India (ECI), the judiciary, and the armed forces.
Rijiju said the Congress had developed a pattern of blaming EVMs and the ECI instead of accepting electoral defeats.
Rahul Gandhi claimed there was a “theft of 2.5 million votes” in Haryana, including “5.21 lakh duplicate and fake votes.”
Responding to these allegations, Rijiju said every political party receives copies of the voter list before elections and can flag discrepancies.
“If any wrongdoing happens or an official errs, we approach the courts,” he stated.
Rijiju rejected the Congress’s accusations, saying, “When we were in opposition... we never abused the courts, the ECI, or questioned democracy... We fought within the system and earned people’s trust.”
The minister further questioned the logic of Gandhi’s claims, asking why the Congress and other opposition parties had managed to win elections in states like Telangana, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala if the voting process was rigged.
Attacking the Congress leader, BJP national spokesperson Ajay Alok said, "Rahul Gandhi and serious? This is a question in itself. Rahul Gandhi is such an 'akal-mand', and his team is also so 'akal-mand' that they don't realise that the same tactics don't work over and over again... This was their official admission of losing the Bihar elections.”
At a press briefing held at Indira Bhawan, Rahul Gandhi alleged large-scale irregularities in the Haryana voter list, claiming that over 25.41 lakh entries were fake.
He said the list contained numerous instances of duplicate voters, invalid addresses, and clusters of bulk registrations.
Gandhi questioned the Election Commission’s inaction, asserting that it had failed to remove duplicate entries, which he claimed would have ensured “fair elections.”
