Attack on Election Commission of India by Rahul, Opposition reflects frustration at losing polls: BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday (August 18, 2025) accused the Congress and the Opposition of levelling baseless allegations against the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter list, which is going on in Bihar, stating that the Opposition wanted to protect illegal immigrants and win elections with those votes.

At a press conference here, BJP MP from Puri, Sambit Patra, blamed Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi for attacking the ECI “out of frustration.”

Mr. Patra flayed Mr. Gandhi for spearheading a campaign against the poll body, alleging that the indecent remarks that he was making against the constitutional bodies reflected the Gandhi family’s frustration at remaining out of power.

“This reflects the frustration of Rahul Gandhi and the Congress. They have only one goal — the [Gandhi] family must gain power at any cost,” the BJP spokesperson said.

“The functioning of Parliament is being obstructed… Not letting any work be done. What is the intention behind this? What is the intention behind Rahul Gandhi undertaking a yatra (in Bihar). There is only one intention behind all these — that is to protect intruders, infiltrators,” Mr. Patra said.

The BJP MP said it was the ECI’s responsibility to ensure that those who were not citizens of the country did not cast their votes in elections, but that Mr. Gandhi and the opposition parties were raising questions on the revision of the voter list in Bihar to win the election on the votes of intruders and illegal infiltrators.

“How to win elections through intruders, how to use intruders, how to carry forward appeasement politics — this is what the Congress and Rahul Gandhi have been doing,” he said.

On media reports about the Congress planning to serve impeachment notice against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in Parliament, Mr. Patra said the “undignified words” used by the Opposition reflect their frustration of losing one election after another.

The entire country was rejecting the kind of remarks that the opposition leaders and Mr. Gandhi were making against the poll panel, he added.