Anurag Thakur slams Rahul Gandhi over his criticism of ECI, its SIR exercise in Bihar

BJP MP Anurag Thakur on Wednesday slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his criticism and charges against the Election Commission of India (ECI) as well as its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter roll in Bihar, citing examples from the grand old party’s regime to rebut his claims.

Thakur, while addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in the national capital, dismissed Gandhi’s claims of “vote theft” and irregularities in the electoral process, and accused the Congress of attempting to undermine democratic institutions after suffering repeated defeats in several elections.

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“The Congress has lost elections 90 times under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, and after every electoral defeat the party would look for new excuses. This time, they are seeing defeat in the upcoming Bihar assembly elections, hence they are levelling baseless allegations against the Election Commission of India,” the BJP MP said.

In the counter attack, Thakur said that it was the Congress that laid the foundation for electoral corruption in India.

Citing examples from the past, he alleged that the Congress and the CPI conspired to defeat Dr B.R. Ambedkar, the architect of the constitution, in the very first general election in 1952.

“They ran a vote theft business back then. Dr Ambedkar, a saint-like figure, was made to lose by just 14,561 votes, and from that moment, Congress started eroding the sanctity of elections,” Thakur alleged.

Congress, he further said, introduced booth capturing in 1957 and went on to conduct large-scale rigging in 1987 in collaboration with the National Conference (NC).

“Even Indira Gandhi once called voters a ‘bunch of fools’ after losing elections. This has been the party’s attitude whenever they face defeat,” Thakur said.

On Rahul Gandhi’s claim that the number of voters were exponentially increased after 5 p.m. during the Maharashtra elections, Thakur termed it ‘misleading and misguiding’.

“The Election Commission has been conducting SIR and listening to public complaints in Bihar, there are no problems encountered by people during the process. Yet Congress, instead of cooperating, is resorting to false accusations. They are insulting the voters of this country,” Thakur asserted.