BJP Denies Vote-Chori Charges

New Delhi: Rejecting Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi's “vote chori” charge as “baseless”, the BJP on Thursday accused the Congress leader of trying to create “hype” over a media report about differences within the Election Commission and attributed his attack to frustration over his party's electoral setbacks.

Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters, party national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Sudhanshu Trivedi called Gandhi a “prapanch shiromani (master manipulator)” and alleged that the PowerPoint presentation made by the Congress leader at his press conference on Thursday was based on “unknown and dubious sources”.

“All decisions (at the Election Commission) were taken unanimously. There is no evidence that the decisions were taken by majority,” Trivedi said.

He questioned the authenticity of the media report, contending that it did not contain comments, even off the record, from the Election Commission or any of the Election Commissioners. “What is the basis of the report?” he asked.

Trivedi alleged that Gandhi was creating “hype” over the report out of frustration with the Congress' electoral setbacks and jealousy towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Over the last 70 years, the BJP has risen decade by decade and the Congress has declined decade by decade. It's because Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a leader who is deeply connected to the grassroots,” he said.

“Rahul Gandhi zameen se ude hue neta hain (Rahul Gandhi is a leader disconnected from the grassroots),” Trivedi said. He further alleged that Gandhi frequently travelled abroad, returned after “acquiring knowledge” there and then attempted to cite “baseless facts”.