BJP accuses Congress of avoiding hard work, making ‘false’ vote-theft allegations

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday (October 6, 2026) accused the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, and the Congress of targeting constitutional institutions out of frustration over repeated electoral defeats, while opposing positions they had previously taken on the verification of voters.Follow the updates of the protest demanding CEC’s resignation on October 6, 2026.Criticising Mr. Gandhi and the Congress’s campaign efforts, BJP MP and spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said, “The reality is that they avoid the hard work themselves and make allegations of ‘vote theft’. Those who are unwilling to work are now making the loudest noise about wrongdoing by others.”“Rahul Gandhi should explain in how many Assembly elections he has personally campaigned for his party. Has he ever stayed continuously for 15 days, 10 days, or even one week [in a State]?,” he asked, pointing to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s extended stay in West Bengal ahead of the recent Assembly polls.On the issue of electoral rolls, he said Congress leaders had themselves previously highlighted the need to identify duplicate, deceased, and shifted voters, but were now questioning the process. He cited earlier remarks by senior Congress leaders, including Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot and K.C. Venugopal.“The Congress should clarify whether it was correct in 2016, 2018, and 2020-21, or whether it is correct today. Both cannot be true at the same time,” he said.Mr. Trivedi also mentioned figures related to voters that he said had been flagged as deceased, shifted, and duplicate ot non-traceable. “Today, when Congress leaders are talking about 13 crore voters, 2.8 crore of them are deceased, 6.8 crore have shifted, 1 crore are duplicate voters, and 3 crore are absent or non-traceable...,” he said, questioning how deceased and duplicate voters could be counted.He cited suspected beneficiaries identified through verification of ration cards and MGNREGA records to stress the need for verification of voter lists. After the BJP government came to power, he said, 5.8 crore ration cards were found belonging to “non-existent” people. Similarly, he said that when MGNREGA cards were verified after 2019, 4.45 crore “non-existent” beneficiaries were found.Accusing Mr. Gandhi of making false allegations against constitutional institutions, Mr. Trivedi alleged: “The ‘first family’ of the Congress has, for the last four generations, ‘held the throat of democracy’ and run a system of ‘monarchy under the guise of democracy’.”SIR claim contestedHe also contested the Congress’s claims about the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, arguing that before the 2003 SIR, the principal Opposition party “had already been wiped out from States accounting for 228 Lok Sabha seats”. “Since 1967, it has been absent from Tamil Nadu [39 seats]; since 1977, from West Bengal [42 seats]; since 1990, from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar [120 seats]; since 1995, from Gujarat (26 seats); and since 1999, from Odisha (21 seats),” he said.“Whose actions are responsible for this? At a time when the BJP was not in power and when neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor Union Home Minister Amit Shah had any role on the national stage, why had the Congress already disappeared from these States since the eras of 1967 and 1977?,” asked the BJP MP.About the bypolls held on Tuesday (October 6, 2026), he said that the Congress was participating in these elections, with its candidates and election agents present and would have 45 days to seek CCTV footage.“Have they got everything verified and corrected, or have they simply kept these issues aside so that a year later they can come out onto the streets and engage in political theatrics?,” he said, claiming that most of the Congress’ allies were not supporting it’s protest over the electoral-roll issue.