New Delhi: The Congress Wednesday questioned the integrity of the electoral process, suggesting that the BJP wins not through popular mandate but the manipulation of electronic voting machines (EVMs), while calling the Election Commission of India (ECI) a “puppet” of the ruling party.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge led the charge for the main Opposition party, seeking to push back against the Centre-led narrative on the 50th anniversary of the Emergency, which Indira Gandhi had imposed when she was prime minister.
Kharge said the country was experiencing an “undeclared Emergency” under the BJP-led ruling dispensation, which, he claimed, was bereft of tolerance and fraternity. A government curtailing free speech got no right to “lecture” others, said Kharge.
“They (BJP leaders) say they were winning elections. Rahul Gandhi and many others cited numbers to point at [irregularities], but the election commission, which has become a puppet of the government, is not ready to accept. You [the BJP] have captured that puppet and are winning polls. You are not winning polls; your machines are. They let go of the ones they want to and capture the ones they want to,” Kharge told at a press conference at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi.
Ever since the Congress defeat in the Maharashtra assembly polls in November 2024, the party has been questioning the result, flagging what it has called “glaring discrepancies in the voter rolls” prepared by the ECI. It has also cast doubts on the turnout figures released by the poll body.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has alleged that the Maharashtra elections witnessed “industrial-scale rigging”. The Election Commission of India, dismissing the charges, invited Rahul for a meeting to discuss “all issues”.
Asked about an ECI letter to Rahul on the issue, Kharge said the Congress wanted a redressal of the problems it had raised, not a debate. The chief of the Congress reiterated his demand to bring back paper ballots by phasing out EVMs.
“All I am saying is that there are defects in your election procedure. Across the world, elections are on paper ballots, be it the US, Australia, or the United Kingdom …,” he said.
During the day, the Congress’s Empowered Action Group of Leaders and Experts (EAGLE), an internal committee formed by the party in February this year to monitor elections, responded to the ECI’s 12 June letter to Rahul. The committee reiterated the Congress’s demands—machine-readable digital copy of the Maharashtra voter lists, as well as video footage from the polling days in Maharashtra and Haryana.
“The Congress party leadership will be happy to meet with the ECI soon after we have received these. In that meeting, we will even present the findings of our analysis to you. As the party that helped establish India as a sovereign democratic independent republic, we will cooperate with the Election Commission to help strengthen our electoral processes. Similarly, it is in the interest of India’s global standing as a cherished democracy that the EC wins the fullest trust and confidence of India’s billion voters and its political parties (sic),” noted the letter by EAGLE.
The Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition took a potshot at Narendra Modi, saying the Prime Minister was scripting a “drama” in the name of the 25 June “Samvidhan Hatya Divas (murder of the Constitution day)”, which the Centre has declared to mark the 50th anniversary of the Emergency.
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On Op Sindoor & Emergency
“The country is facing an undeclared ‘Emergency’. They (BJP leaders), however, rake up the Emergency of the past. People have forgotten about it. Indira Gandhi supported the amendments to the Constitution introduced by Morarji Desai. Now, they (BJP leaders) are enacting a drama,” Kharge said.
He was referring to the 44th amendment introduced in the Constitution by the Janata Party government, which Desai led as the prime minister. The 44th amendment replaced “internal disturbance” with “armed rebellion” as grounds for any Emergency declarations while making it clear that Articles 19 and 21, which guarantee freedom of speech and expression, the right to assemble peacefully without arms, and the right to life and personal liberty could not remain in suspension even during an internal Emergency.
On the current government, Kharge said, “The Constitution is in danger due to these people. Dissenters, journalists, and opposition leaders are now not tolerated. Where is free speech? Students are termed traitors; journalists are jailed.“
Kharge mocked the PM over the Centre’s silence on the repeated claims by United States President Donald Trump that his administration mediated between India and Pakistan when a military conflict broke out between the two neighbours.
In May this year, India struck terror bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir after the 22 April Pahalgam attack, leading to cross-border tensions.
“A so-called Vishwa Guru cannot resolve a myriad of issues at home. Moreover, Trump has claimed to have brokered a truce between India and Pakistan at least 15 times now. However, he (PM Modi) has not uttered a word. How are you a Vishwa Guru when you are scared of Trump? And he (Modi) did something that no one has done before. He went to the US and joined the election campaign of Trump, raising the slogan ‘Ab ki baar Trump sarkar‘,” Kharge said.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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