BJP accuses Congress of avoiding hard work and raising ‘false’ allegations of vote-stealing
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday (Oct 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 the positions they had previously taken on voter verification.
Watch for updates on the protest demanding the resignation of the CEC on October 6, 2026.
Criticizing Mr Gandhi and the Congress’ campaigning efforts, BJP MP and spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said: “The reality is that they themselves are avoiding hard work and making allegations of ‘stealing votes’. Those who are not willing to work are now making the loudest noise about the wrongdoing of others.”
“Rahul Gandhi should explain how many assembly elections he personally campaigned for his party. Did he ever stay continuously for 15 days, 10 days or even one week (in the state)?” he asked, pointing to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s extended stay in West Bengal ahead of the recent parliamentary polls.
On the issue of electoral rolls, he said Congress leaders had earlier emphasized the need to identify duplicate, deceased and shifted voters, but now they are questioning the process. He quoted earlier remarks by senior Congress leaders including Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot and KC Venugopal.
“Congress should clarify whether it was right in 2016, 2018 and 2020-21 or whether it is right today. Both cannot be true at the same time,” he said.
Mr. Trivedi also mentioned figures relating to voters who he said were marked as deceased, shifted and duplicate untraceable. “Today, when Congress leaders talk about 13 million voters, 2.8 billion of them have died, 6.8 billion have shifted, 1 million are duplicate voters and 3 billion are missing or untraceable…,” he said, questioning how dead and duplicate voters can be accounted for.
He cited suspected beneficiaries identified through verification of ration cards and MGNREGA records to highlight the need for verification of voter rolls. After the BJP government came to power, he said 5.8 lakh ration cards belonging to “non-existent” people were found. Similarly, he said 4.45 lakh “non-existent” beneficiaries were found during verification of MGNREGA cards after 2019.
Accusing Mr. Gandhi of making false allegations against constitutional institutions, Mr. Trivedi said, “For the last four generations, the ‘first family’ of the Congress has ‘held the throat of democracy’ and operated a system of ‘monarchy under the guise of democracy’.”
The SIR claim has been challenged
He also disputed the Congress’s claim about the Special Intensive Review (SIR) process, arguing that before the 2003 SIR, the main opposition party had “already been wiped out from states that had 228 Lok Sabha seats”. “It has been absent in Tamil Nadu since 1967 (39 seats); since 1977 in West Bengal (42 seats); since 1990 in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar (120 seats); since 1995 in Gujarat (26 seats); and since 1999 in 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 has the Congress already disappeared from these states since 1967 and 1977?” asked a BJP MP.
About the general election held on Tuesday (October 6, 2026), he said the Congress is participating in that election with candidates and election agents present and will have 45 days to retrieve the CCTV footage.
“Do they have everything verified and fixed, or do they just put these issues aside so that a year later they can take to the streets and engage in political theater?” he said, adding that most Congress allies do not support his protest against the electoral roll issue.
Published – 06 Oct 2026 19:23 IST