New Delhi, Aug 2 (IANS) BJP and JD(U) leaders launched a scathing attack on Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Saturday, following his remarks against the Election Commission of India (ECI).

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Bhim Singh Chandravanshi condemned LoP Gandhi’s remarks as damaging to democratic institutions.

“Rahul Gandhi is the Leader of the Opposition and a senior leader of a major political party. If he continues to attack a constitutional institution like the Election Commission, it is deeply unfortunate and condemnable. Undermining public trust in such bodies is, in a way, an act against the nation,” Chandravanshi said.

BJP MLA Ram Kadam mocked LoP Gandhi’s dramatic phrasing and accused him of grandstanding without substance.

“If he truly has concrete evidence or, in his words, an ‘atom bomb’, then is he keeping it at home to play with or pickle it? If he doesn’t trust the Election Commission, he should submit it to the judiciary,” he said, adding that previous allegations had already been addressed by the Commission in detail.

JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar also took aim at LoP Gandhi’s rhetoric, cautioning against inflammatory language.

“In politics, we use strategies, not atomic bombs. Rahul Gandhi should control his words. Politics must be based on facts and evidence,” he said and also demanded clarity on whether the Congress endorsed ally Tejashwi Yadav’s suggestion of a potential election boycott.

Earlier, the LoP professed that he had “open and shut proof” of ECI’s involvement in vote theft when asked about the contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in poll-bound Bihar.

Addressing the annual Legal Conclave titled ‘Constitutional Challenges – Perspectives & Pathways’, LoP Gandhi stated that the Congress party has obtained “conclusive evidence” of voter list manipulation and large-scale electoral malpractice.

“My allies would say to me, ‘yes, we can see that cheating has happened. But we don’t have proof.’ And now, I say with absolutely no doubt that we have proof,” he declared.

LoP Gandhi said the party conducted a six-month-long investigation into physical, booth-wise voter lists provided by the Election Commission. The documents, he alleged, were deliberately made unscannable and uncopyable.

The Congress leader said that his team compared six-and-a-half lakh voter photographs and names manually, uncovering that one-and-a-half lakh were fake.

“We went photograph by photograph, name by name, comparing six and a half lakh entries. And I’m proud of the work the Congress Party did,” he said.

LoP Gandhi recounted his long-held suspicions about the integrity of elections since 2014, saying he was particularly shocked by the sudden defeat of the Congress and its allies in Maharashtra after a clear Lok Sabha victory.

“Three formidable parties suddenly just evaporated. That’s when I thought, this just cannot be. And so we started seriously looking into electoral malpractice,” he stated.

He added that despite early signs of irregularities in states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh, it wasn’t until recent months that his party gathered hard documentation, “This is treason, nothing less than that. And we will find you,” he said, in a pointed warning to those allegedly involved in tampering with the democratic process.

The ECI, in response, dismissed LoP Gandhi’s accusations as “baseless and irresponsible”, advising its officials to ignore politically-charged statements that undermine institutional credibility.

–IANS

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