Chennai, Dec 7 (IANS) The Tamil Nadu unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded an unconditional public and parliamentary apology from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for what it termed “baseless and damaging” allegations of vote theft and institutional bias during the Bihar Assembly elections.

In a statement issued by A.N.S. Prasad, spokesperson of Tamil Nadu BJP, the party accused Rahul Gandhi and the Congress leadership of attempting to undermine public confidence in India’s democratic institutions by repeatedly alleging “vote chori”, EVM tampering and partisan conduct by the Election Commission of India (ECI) after the Bihar results.

The BJP said recent disclosures made in Parliament had conclusively established that the Bihar elections were conducted in a free and fair manner, completely disproving the opposition’s claims.

According to the official government statement, not a single request for re-polling or recount was received in any of the 243 constituencies. Further, VVPAT verification in 1,215 polling stations — five per constituency — showed 100 per cent matching with EVM results, with zero discrepancies reported.

The statement added that there were no complaints of large-scale irregularities, booth capturing or systematic voter suppression anywhere in the state, calling the Congress narrative “entirely manufactured and misleading”.

The BJP also recalled that Rahul Gandhi had held multiple press conferences after the Bihar verdict, alleging that the elections were “unfair from the beginning” and raising claims of CCTV failure and voter deletions.

“All these allegations collapsed under the scrutiny of the ECI and the judicial system,” the party asserted.

Referring to earlier verdicts, the party pointed out that the Supreme Court of India has on several occasions upheld the integrity and reliability of the EVM-VVPAT system and rejected demands for 100 per cent verification as unnecessary due to robust safeguards already in place.

“In a mature democracy, dissent cannot become a licence for sustained falsehoods against constitutional bodies,” the BJP statement said.

It warned that repeated attacks on the credibility of election authorities risk eroding public trust and societal stability. The party demanded that Rahul Gandhi tender an unconditional apology on the floor of the Lok Sabha during the ongoing Winter Session and formally withdraw all allegations against the Election Commission with regard to the 2025 Bihar elections. Failure to do so, the BJP said, would leave a lasting mark on his political legacy.

–IANS

aal/dpb