Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday further accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of having a large number of its Members of Parliament win their seats through vote theft. The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha alleged that out of its 240-member strength, almost every sixth BJP MP had been an beneficiary of electoral manipulation.
In one of his posts on social media platform X, Gandhi argued that election results were being compromised using irregular practices, including tampering with the voter lists and misuse of institutions. He also claimed that these practices did not just apply to one constituency but to the whole state government. In reference to Haryana, Rahul Gandhi referred to the state administration as an infiltrator, which implied that democratic processes had been undermined.
He further asserted that in case of a fair election, the BJP would not be able to cross even 140 seats in the Lok Sabha. Gandhi made the same allegation against other states, such as Assam and West Bengal, where he alleged that the ruling party had been compromising the electoral process in those states with the assistance of institutional mechanisms.
In support of the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Gandhi said that in the state, allegedly over 100 seats had been stolen, a statement that echoed her worries on issues of electoral irregularities. He cited past elections in such states as Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Haryana as examples of what he termed as a recurring pattern.
The BJP has officially not reacted to the recent statement, but the accusations will probably only deepen political tensions in the run-up to future elections.