New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday hit out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his fresh attack on the Election Commission and the Centre in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) row, calling him a “pre-eminent fraudster” and an “inauthentic politician” who, it said, relies on lies and misinformation.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters in Delhi, Kerala BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar said Gandhi was neither a protector of secularism nor of the Constitution. “He is a protector of his own family interest,” Chandrasekhar said. He described Gandhi’s earlier description of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “deshdrohi” as the “ultimate sign” of what he called fake and inauthentic politics meant to mislead people.
The exchange followed Gandhi’s remarks on Thursday that the online Form 6, used for fresh voter registration, had been changed “illegally”. He asked who in the Election Commission had ordered Tata Consultancy Services to make the change and who in the company had signed off on it. Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said the alteration was orchestrated by “the PM-HM duo”.
Chandrasekhar rejected the charge. “Rahul Gandhi is a pre-eminent fraudster in Indian politics. Rahul Gandhi is an inauthentic politician who relies on lies and misinformation without any positive agenda to conduct his politics,” he said. He alleged that Gandhi had a pattern of inventing stories, and went further: “He is a living, breathing practitioner of the philosophy of Joseph Goebbels, who was Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister.”
The BJP leader also revisited Gandhi’s earlier claims. “Gandhi claimed that EVMs were systematically hacked. That was proved to be wrong. He said democracy is being stolen. That has been repeatedly proved to be wrong, especially when his party was winning elections,” he said.
The latest clash sits inside a wider fight over the SIR of electoral rolls. Gandhi has alleged, citing a media report of internal objections by two election commissioners, that the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls were rigged and has demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The Commission has said SIR decisions were unanimous. The BJP has treated the Congress campaign as recycled allegation without proof.
