New Delhi [India], August 9 : The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday asked the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, to give a formal complaint regarding his "vote theft" allegation against the Election Commission of India(EC). The party's National Spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia also alleged that the Congress has a habit of blaming someone for their electoral setbacks.
"The Congress party is involved in scams. They lose elections. When they lose elections, they have to blame someone; sometimes they blame EVMs. Sometimes on VVPAT. Sometimes on the Election Commission of India. Sometimes they abuse the public and make false allegations without facts. And never give a formal complaint," Bhatia said in a press conference.
"If you want to seek a remedy in law, Mr Rahul Gandhi, I must remind you that our country, India, is governed by the rule of law, the Constitution of India, and there are some procedures to raise your complaint. You have to give a formal complaint. Third, when you make baseless allegations in the media, and after that, any constitutional institution asks for proof, then refuse to give proof," he said.
On Friday, the Centre and opposition sparred over Rahul Gandhi's allegations of "vote theft" with BJP leaders and allies dismissing his claims as "baseless."
However, the opposition members backed his charges and demanded a parliamentary discussion.
This came in response to a press conference held by Rahul Gandhi on August 7, where he claimed that the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were "choreographed" by the EC to benefit the BJP, which he said appeared "immune to anti-incumbency."
Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said neither Rahul Gandhi's party nor his party workers believed his claims, adding that if common entries in voter lists existed, a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) was necessary.
Speaking to reporters, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said, "I have said this earlier too that neither his political party nor his party workers believe what he says. So, I think the country also need not take his words very seriously...In his press conference yesterday, Rahul Gandhi presented data collected through software and discussed common entries across different states. I would like to ask one thing, if there indeed are common entries, then Special Intensive Review (SIR) becomes all the more important. He and his party have to decide whether they are supporting or opposing SIR."
Meanwhile, labelling Rahul Gandhi's claims as 'baseless", the EC on Friday said that the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha is trying to "sensationalise" the issue instead of availing the legal processes.
The poll body in a statement said that Rahul Gandhi repeated a "tired" script.
"At his recent press conference, Rahul Gandhi repeated a tired script. In 2018, it was then Kamal Nath, the then President of MPCC; today, it's the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha playing the same tune. In 2018, they tried to mislead the Supreme Court by producing documents from a private website to demonstrate that there are mistakes in the electoral rolls in as much as the same face was shown again for as many as 36 voters. Wherein, in reality, the defects were rectified around 4 months ago and the copy of the same was supplied to the party. This was made ground to seek the searchable pdf format for electoral rolls. The Court refused to accept the prayer of Kamal Nath," ECI said.