Bhopal, Nov 5 (IANS) Stepping up its offensive against the Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday accused him of spreading anarchy by questioning the electoral process and claimed that his rise in the Congress has gone hand-in-hand with the party’s steady decline.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh BJP President Hemant Khandelwal and party’s national spokesperson Prem Shukla targeted Rahul Gandhi over the Congress’ repeated electoral defeats and its allegations of irregularities in the voter lists.
Khandelwal said the BJP has launched a campaign across Madhya Pradesh to “save democracy and remove anarchy” to counter what he described as LoP Gandhi’s attempt to create instability in the country. “Rahul Gandhi is working to spread anarchy across the country,” Khandelwal said.
Shukla, who led the attack against Congress with data, said Rahul Gandhi’s political journey tells the story of the Congress’ fall. “Whenever Rahul Gandhi was promoted, the Congress was demoted,” Shukla said.
He said that when Rahul Gandhi became the Congress General Secretary in 2008, the party had 1,182 MLAs against the BJP’s 889.
“When he (Rahul Gandhi) became the party Vice-President in 2014, the Congress tally fell to 883. When he became the party President in 2017, it further dropped to 807. In 2024, when he became Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, the party was left with 654 MLAs,” Shukla claimed.
According to the BJP leader, the Congress currently has 663 MLAs against the BJP’s 1,819 and has lost around 60 Assembly elections.
Challenging LoP Gandhi’s “vote theft” charge, Shukla said the Congress leader has failed to produce evidence of even a single genuine case of wrongful deletion of a voter’s name.
“Rahul Gandhi has not been able to produce even one genuine voter whose name was wrongly deleted from the electoral roll,” the BJP leader added.
He said the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has been conducted 12 times in the country, including 10 times during Congress rule, and is aimed at removing names of deceased, duplicate and permanently shifted voters.
The BJP leaders also attacked the Opposition’s November 1 rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, disputing its claim of a massive turnout. Shukla alleged that the rally led to closure of shops in parts of the national capital and caused losses to traders. The Congress has been accusing the Election Commission of irregularities and demanding accountability over the SIR exercise.
–IANS
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