BJP leaders call Rahul Gandhi’s CEC remarks unbecoming

Several BJP leaders criticised Rahul Gandhi over his remarks against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar amid the ‘vote theft’ controversy. They said the authorities should be allowed to handle the matter, while the Election Commission has rejected reports of internal differences

New Delhi: Several BJP leaders and ministers on Friday criticised Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi over his remarks against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Election Commission of India (ECI) amid the controversy over alleged “vote theft”, saying his language was unbecoming and that he should allow the authorities concerned to deal with the matter.

Rajya Sabha MP and RLM national president Upendra Kushwaha said differences of opinion were natural but the Opposition’s language was inappropriate.

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“Such language should not be used. Conflict between two sides is normal. Conflict is not unnatural. The authorities responsible for looking into the matter will take necessary steps. Please let them do their job,” he said.

Jammu and Kashmir BJP MLA Vikram Randhawa said, “How can I respond to Rahul Gandhi’s comments? However, his own party members don’t take his comments seriously.”

West Bengal Minister Dilip Ghosh questioned whether Gandhi had the authority to decide who should be arrested.

“Has Rahul Gandhi become the courts and the judiciary, or has he become the Constitution itself, that he gets to decide who should be arrested?” he asked.

“If you cannot win an election because the public does not vote for you after someone conducted a free and fair election where they lost, who is responsible for that?” he asked.

In Jharkhand, Assembly LoP Babulal Marandi alleged that Gandhi’s remarks were harming the Congress and questioned his claims about the Election Commission.

“Rahul Gandhi is going to take the entire Congress party down with him. He says anything without a clue, which the public can’t digest. Please ask him, before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, whose government was ruling?” Marandi said.

“Wasn’t Manmohan Singh the Prime Minister, and the UPA in power?” he asked.

Marandi also said the Election Commission at the time would have been appointed by the Congress and noted that the party subsequently lost the election.

“Most of the issues raised are not based on logic; most are baseless. I tried to understand his (Rahul Gandhi’s) stance by reading the news on channels and in papers. Whenever there are three members, the decision is taken unanimously. There could be differences; we are human. You have to see whether the decision has been taken unanimously,” he said.

Gandhi on Thursday criticised CEC Gyanesh Kumar and the BJP-led government at the Centre at a press conference, asking the CEC to resign and turn “approver” over his allegations of “vote theft”.

His remarks came days after a media report claimed differences within the poll panel over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and other issues. The ECI has rejected the report, saying that its decisions, including those relating to SIR, had the approval of all three commissioners.

Gandhi also questioned the reported absence of anti-incumbency against the BJP and asserted that the anti-incumbency factor “spares no one”.