Sudhanshu Trivedi says Congress is 'intoxicated by defeat' amid ECI protest

The BJP on Tuesday hit back at the Congress over the Opposition's protest against the Election Commission, with party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi questioning the Congress's stand on voter verification and alleged duplication in electoral rolls.

Trivedi questioned why the Congress would oppose verification of voters classified as “absent, shifted, dead and duplicate voters” and asked whom the party sought to benefit by allowing such voters to retain voting rights without verification.

Addressing a press conference in the national capital, Trivedi said, “We want to clearly ask the Congress whom it wants to benefit. By giving voting rights to absent, shifted, dead and duplicate voters without any verification, whom does the Congress want to benefit? I am saying it again—what is the Congress’s intention behind giving voting rights to absent, shifted, dead and duplicate voters without any verification, and whom does it want to benefit?”

The BJP leader also accused the Congress of making what he described as baseless claims and linked its current position to earlier statements by senior party leaders on voter duplication.

"Rahul Gandhi himself and many of his senior leaders have said that there is voter duplication at several places. Abhishek Manu Singhvi has also been saying this, as have Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot and many other prominent leaders. K.C. Venugopal has also been saying this. So, we want to ask them: Were you right in 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2021, or are you right today? The Congress should clarify whether it was telling the truth then or is telling the truth today," Trivedi said.

Trivedi further attacked the Congress over its political record, accusing its leadership of following dynastic politics and alleging that the party had attempted to “infiltrate” Akashvani during Tuesday's protest.

"Friends, they have become so deranged by their continuous defeats in elections and are so deeply involved in misleading the entire country with baseless, nonsensical statements and false claims. They may not like hearing this, but I would like to say this to them: “Intoxicated by political defeat, their minds have become consumed by a defeated and destructive mentality.” The first family of our main Opposition party, the Congress, has, for the past four generations, ruled by strangling democracy and running a system of dynastic rule under the guise of democracy. And today, they have attempted to infiltrate Akashvani (All India Radio) as well,” he said.

Trivedi's remarks came as INDIA bloc MPs continued their protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in New Delhi.

Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were stopped from entering the Election Commission office complex. The INDIA bloc MPs subsequently staged a sit-in outside the EC office after marching from Parliament to Nirvachan Sadan, demanding Kumar's resignation.