Congress betrayed allies, sidelined veterans, toppled governments: BJP
Bharatiya Janata Party’s senior national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi accused the Congress of sidelining and undermining several people over the years, including its own leaders. | Photo credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
Reacting to Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s accusations of “government theft” and “party theft” after the Trinamool Congress symbol was frozen, the BJP on Friday (18 September 2026) said the history of the Congress is replete with instances of “betraying allies and overthrowing elected governments”.
The Election Commission has barred two Trinamool factions from using the existing party symbol and name and allotted them new symbols and names to use in the upcoming assembly elections.
Reacting to the development on Friday, Mr Gandhi wrote on X: “First Shiv Sena, then NCP and now Trinamool Congress. Same pattern every time – BJP and Election Commission join forces to divide the party. Then its electoral symbol is ripped away. When the whole party can be stolen, no wonder the votes of millions of Indians can be.”
“Vote theft. Government theft. Now party theft – this has become a symbol of our democratic decline…,” he claimed.
Sudhanshu’s answer
BJP MP and spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi responded by describing the Congress as the “Bhasmasur” of Indian politics and claimed that whoever came in contact with it was ultimately destroyed.
He told a press conference that “the Congress throughout its history has betrayed its allies, overthrown elected state governments in an unconstitutional manner and repeatedly divided the party by removing even its own veteran leaders”, while the BJP was “a symbol of democratic values and unity”.
“Rahul Gandhi cannot even read enough to understand that the full form of NCP is ‘National Congress Party’ and that the name of Trinamool Congress also contains the word ‘Congress’. Sharad Pawar broke away from the Congress in 1999 over the issue of leadership by a person of foreign origin, while Mamata Banerjee left the party in 1997, after being distraught by the internal situation of the Congress itself in 1997 Congress. Bengal,” he said.
Mr. Trivedi accused the Congress of marginalizing and undermining several people over the years, including its own leaders. “…in the 1969 presidential election, Indira Gandhi called for votes against her own party’s candidate, Neelam Sanjiv Reddy,” the BJP leader said.
He further claimed that senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot was recently “prevented from becoming the Congress President”. “The betrayal of Chaudhary Charan Singh during the Janata Party regime, the merger of the Lok Dal in Haryana in 1980 and the absorption of Chimanbhai Patel’s Janata Dal into the Congress in 1992” were among the alleged cases he cited.
Mr. Trivedi said that after the Congress came to power at the Center in 1980, opposition governments in nine states were dismissed. The then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh T. Anjaiah was “humiliated” in 1982, Karpoori Thakur’s Lok Dal disintegrated in 1982, the NT Rama Rao government in Andhra Pradesh was dismissed in 1984, the National Conference split in the same year and the then Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, reportedly within three months, fell into government199.
Mr. Trivedi also referred to the impeachment of the SR Bommai government in Karnataka in 1989. “Subsequently, in 1994, a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court held that the majority of the government cannot be determined by the personal opinion of the Governor or the President, but only through a floor test in the House,” said J19kti Morcha4, also J19kti Morch bribery case.
He also claimed that the Union governments led by Janata Dal (Secular) chief HD Deve Gowda and Janata Dal’s IK Gujral were overthrown by the Congress in the late 1990s.
Published – 18 Sep 2026 23:04 IST