New Delhi [India], September 18 : Bharatiya Janata Party National Spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi on Friday hit back at Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi over his criticism of the Election Commission's interim order freezing the name and symbol of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), saying the Raebareli MP's remarks showed that he "knows nothing about his own party".
Addressing the press conference in the national capital, Trivedi responded to Gandhi's allegation that the BJP and Election Commission were acting together to split opposition parties, after the poll panel barred rival TMC factions from using the party's name and reserved symbol in the upcoming West Bengal bypolls. The ECI has asked the two factions to submit alternative names and symbols pending a final decision on the dispute.
"People have a perception about Rahul Gandhi that he knows nothing about the country...Today, he has posted a remarkable tweet which suggests that he knows nothing about his own party either. He has accused the BJP of finishing TMC after Shiv Sena and NCP. I want to tell him that these parties (TMC, NCP) were formed by breaking away from Congress themselves..." Trivedi said.
Gandhi, who is the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, had earlier today slammed the BJP and the EC following the poll panel interim order to freeze the name and "Flowers and Grass" symbol of All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), saying that "party theft" has joined vote and government theft as a defining mark of India's democratic decline.
"First Shiv Sena, then NCP, and now Trinamool Congress. Every time, the same pattern—BJP and the Election Commission join forces to split a party. Then its election symbol is snatched away. When an entire party can be stolen, it's hardly surprising that the votes of millions of Indians can be stolen too. Vote theft. Government theft. Now party theft—these have become symbols of our democratic decline," Gandhi said.
The Congress leader also accused the Election Commission of acting in tandem with the BJP to dismantle opposition forces.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission on Thursday issued its interim order amid a dispute between rival factions of the TMC over control of the party. It barred both groups from using the name "All India Trinamool Congress" and the "Flowers and Grass" symbol for the upcoming bypolls, and directed them to submit three preferred names and symbols.
The arrangement is interim and will remain in force until the Commission takes a final decision on the dispute under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.
Further, the Lok Sabha LoP alleged that the ECI is actively failing its constitutional duty to protect voters and instead helping the BJP overturn election results.
"The ECI's constitutional responsibility is to protect the mandate—but instead, it's aiding those very forces that overturn the people's verdict. This fight isn't just Mamata Banerjee's. It's the fight of every political party, every voter who wants free and fair elections," he said.
Futher, State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya on Friday said that both factions of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) have been asked to submit three options each for the party name and a free election symbol by 11 am on September 18.