Rahul Gandhi's 'Vote Chori' Campaign: Predictable Playbook, Says BJP As Oppn Finds Common Cause

News18

3 days ago

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A top BJP source said Gandhi's real aim is not to prove his claims by judicial scrutiny but undermine public trust in institutions
Rahul Gandhi has found a new political war cry in 'Vote Chori', but for the BJP, it is the same, painfully predictable political playbook that does not find any fault in his party's election wins in Karnataka or Telangana, but blames it on 'fraud' when the party crashes in Maharashtra or Haryana.
For BJP, Gandhi's rhetoric is merely a media campaign with no legal recourse towards courts. A top party source said Gandhi's real aim is to not prove his claims by judicial scrutiny but undermine public trust in institutions.
The SIR protest march in Parliament on Monday served another purpose for Gandhi—him bringing together the INDIA bloc for the first time on an issue after the Lok Sabha elections. Gandhi led the march with SP's Akhilesh Yadav, DMK's Kanimozhi, TMC MPs, RJD and the Left in tow. After over a year, the Opposition is finally uniting for a common cause.
But, apart from that, Gandhi's strategy fails to look within, say top BJP sources. Like the party's inconsistent organisation or dwindling political cadre footprint across the country that had led to election setbacks. Or the party's weak leadership. The approach towards ECI, instead, gives a new insurance to the party's future losses—that it is just not our fault.
Another top BJP source points to other gross inconsistencies in Gandhi's claims. One, narrow wins being termed by him as instances of election fraud. According to the source, narrow wins are part of India's electoral history and there have been two instances of politicians winning by just one vote and umpteen examples of margins below a 1,000 votes or lesser.
Phased polling in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls was also nothing out of the ordinary when it comes to Indian elections, the second BJP source mentioned above said. Congress also banks on exit polls to say the real results are quite the opposite (like in Haryana) and hence, cries fraud. But BJP points out how exit polls have been consistently proven wrong.
It is also a fact that India's electorate is growing like its population. A 4.4 per cent voter growth in Maharashtra in 2024, which Congress has cited as suspicious, in fact was lower than under UPA in 2004 when it stood at 4.7 per cent, the first BJP source said. In 2024, Karnataka's voter rolls were managed under a Congress state government, which now cries fraud.
The top BJP sources, in fact, point to duplicate voters in Congress bastions in Karnataka and claim that BJP has been at the receiving end of such a phenomenon in Malegaon Central, Kerala, Wayanad, Rae Bareli, as well as Diamond Harbour. BJP sources say it was the Bihar SIR exercise which eliminated 'electoral fraud' carrying on in the state for years.
Gandhi may not be able to prove his claims of 'vote chori', but for now, his campaign is proving to be the glue for the Opposition which sees the impending cross-country SIR as a 'common enemy". BJP hopes the Bihar result will prove to be the perfect answer to Gandhi's narrative, as the LoP moves from EVMs to 'Vote Chori', hoping desperately that something sticks.
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