new delhi, Sept 18
BJP’s Maharashtra state chief spokesperson Keshav Upadhye told media persons at a press conference here on Thursday that Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, who has alleged vote rigging, is “the king of vote rigging”.
“It has become the business of the Congress to hold press conferences with bravado, make video presentations, raise false issues of vote rigging with the help of the Congress ecosystem, and simply blow hot air without presenting any evidence. Rahul Gandhi should apologise to the country for making false allegations of vote rigging. If there are any objections regarding the counting of votes and the voters’ list, the Congress should submit an affidavit to the Election Commission,” BJP’s Maharashtra state chief spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said at a press conference on Thursday at the BJP’s state unit office in Mumbai, along with BJP media department chief Navnath Ban.
Upadhye questioned whether the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, which is “sitting on the lap of the Congress”, would dare to question Rahul Gandhi about his allegations.
Upadhye gave several examples about the Congress’s history of vote rigging, stating that in Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan’s Karad constituency, several names were registered as voters in the same house of his relatives. He said it is ridiculous that Prithviraj Chavan heads the Congress’s voters’ list inspection team. Upadhye pointed out that after these allegations were made, Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan remained silent.
Upadhye stated that Congress national spokesperson Pawan Khera and his wife were found to have two election identity cards in different constituencies. Since there are many such examples of vote rigging by the Congress itself, allegations and claims made by Rahul Gandhi about vote-rigging cannot be taken seriously and are completely false, Upadhye said. “Rahul Gandhi does not want to fight a legal battle against vote rigging because he himself knows that he does not have any evidence to prove his allegations.
Rahul Gandhi and the Congress only want to create a stir across the country by making a fuss about vote rigging. They want to spread chaos. The fact that an 11-page pamphlet has been published by Naxalites, including baseless allegations of vote rigging made by Rahul Gandhi, gives an idea about how dangerous the plan of the Congress is,” Upadhye said.
Upadhye said that the Karnataka High Court had exposed vote rigging by the Congress by cancelling the MLA status of a Congress leader in Karnataka and ordering a recount of votes.
Giving an example of how to fight a legal battle that will stand the test of the court and get justice if there is an objection to the election results, Upadhye cited the case of BJP MLA K S Manjunath Gowda from Malur constituency in Karnataka. “Manjunath Gowda filed a petition in the Karnataka High Court challenging the MLA status of Congress MLA KY Nanjegowda, after which the Karnataka High Court gave its verdict, declaring Congress MLA K Y Nanjegowda’s election invalid and also ordered a recount of the votes in the 2023 assembly elections”.
Upadhye said that the Karnataka High Court’s verdict boomeranged upon the Congress, which had made allegations of vote rigging against BJP MLA KS Manjunath Gowda, from Malur constituency in Karnataka.
Upadhye also criticised the Congress for its double standard of spreading chaos by raising the alarm of vote theft on one hand, but opposing special intensive revision of the Bihar voter list on the other hand.
“Even though the Election Commission publicly stated that the voters’ list should be published on August 1 after the special intensive revision and that any objections should be filed within a week, the Congress did not raise even a single objection. Making such false allegations in the media without any evidence is a cunning ploy by the Congress to create suspicion in the minds of the people,” Upadhye said.
In a related development, BJP-led Mahayuti ally and Ajit Pawar-led NCP’s Maharashtra president, Sunil Tatkare, on Thursday called Rahul Gandhi’s fresh allegations of “vote theft” “childish”, and said that voters will see through them.
Speaking to media persons in Nagpur, Ajit Pawar-led NCP’s Maharashtra president Sunil Tatkare said that the Congress made such allegations because it could not digest its “huge defeat” in the November 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections.
“Rahul Gandhi is certainly the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, but he does not have knowledge of booth-level poll processes, and his statements are very childish. Whenever a voters’ list in every booth gets ready, the Election Commission gives time for registration of new voters as well as invites suggestions and objections before the final voters’ list is published. Accordingly, booth-level and block-level officers of every party go through these lists. I think when these lists are examined at the booth level, then levelling such allegations is not good,” Tatkare, who is a Lok Sabha MP from Raigad, said.
Tatkare said that the Congress was satisfied with its performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, but could not digest its huge defeat in the 2024 Maharashtra state assembly elections after six months.
“Therefore, they make such vote theft allegations. But voters are knowledgeable enough to understand the narrative being set by the INDIA bloc and Rahul Gandhi,” Tatkare said.
