NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday took a dig at the Congress, saying that the party should keep Rahul Gandhi a “mock prime minister for life”.Holding a press briefing parallel to the proceedings of the INDIA bloc’s “public impeachment” of CEC Gyanesh Kumar, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said: “The world has already realised that Rahul Gandhi lacks the fuel. This satellite will never launch. Keep him as your mock Prime Minister for life. We have no objection.”Patra said the programme by the Congress-led bloc was “a mockery of the Parliament itself”.Tearing into the Congress party, Patra defended the law that lends immunity and protection to CEC Gyanesh Kumar, saying the BJP “did not introduce any law that did not already exist. Immunity and protection for the President and the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) are already enshrined in the Constitution”.Patra also cited the August 2023 Telangana lower special court order that directed an FIR to be filed against the Chief Election Commissioner.“The high court immediately quashed the order, stating that this was not the correct procedure and directed that it be dismissed. But it became evident then that, due to political pressure, anyone could file a case or an FIR against individuals, even those holding high constitutional offices who are protected by the Constitution, without any regard for the law. Therefore, a procedure was introduced. It was merely a procedure. The legal provision already existed within the Constitution. The Constitution of India provides this protection,” he said.
‘Mock parliament a drama’
Addressing a press brief, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said: “If there was ever a vote theft in India, it was committed by the first member of the Gandhi family, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who stole the votes of prominent Congress leaders. Those leaders had cast their votes in a ballot box to elect Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as Prime Minister. By stealing those votes, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru became the Prime Minister of the country, an unelected Prime Minister. “Patra, who is MP from Puri Lok Sabha constituency, called the “mock parliament” a “drama”, and highlighted that the Speical Intensive Revision (SIR) was ongoing and substantiated the claims around the “13 crore delted voters”.“Across various states, the names of 13 crore people have not yet been included in the final electoral roll. Why is this the case? What is this ‘ASDD’ formula? ‘A’ stands for ‘Absent’. There is an official known as a BLO (Booth Level Officer). The BLO is responsible for an ‘enumeration form’ that every individual is required to complete. The BLO visits your home three times with this form. If you are not present on any of these three occasions, you are marked as ‘absent’, and your name is excluded from the electoral roll. What about ‘S’ in ‘ASDD’? It stands for ‘Shifted’—permanently shifted,” Patra said.
Amit Shah challenges Rahul, Akhilesh
Earlier, Union home minister Amit Shah slammed Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav for raising the issue of voter irregularities ahead of the INDIA bloc’s Delhi Chalo march and challenged them to discuss the issue during a special session of Parliament.While addressing a gathering in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow, Shah highlighted the BJP’s electoral victories in states like Haryana, Maharashtra and Bihar, and said that the opposition had realised that it could not win elections.“In Haryana, the Bharatiya Janata Party formed the government after securing the highest number of seats. In Maharashtra, the NDA formed the government with the largest share of seats. In Bihar, for the first time, a chief minister from the Bharatiya Janata Party took office. In Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party formed the government after three decades. In Puducherry, the Bharatiya Janata Party formed the government once again. In Assam, we achieved a hat-trick by winning 100 seats, and in Bengal, we completely wiped out Mamata Didi,” Shah said.“After the events in Bengal, they have realised that they simply cannot win elections,” he added.The Union home minister said that “Rahul Baba” and Akhilesh were cut from different cloth and accused them of “blaming the umpire” instead of accepting defeat.
“Naturally, when a team loses a match or a game, they should sit down and practise more – that is what is expected, isn’t it? But ‘Rahul Baba’ is cut from a different cloth. The same goes for Akhilesh and others in the ‘INDIA’ alliance who are with him. Instead of accepting defeat, they began accusing the umpire of cheating, claiming that votes were stolen,” Shah said.He further said that the opposition had no intention of raising the issue in Parliament and accused it of refusing to let the House function.“Rahul Baba, I challenge both you and Akhilesh Yadav right here and now: the Bharatiya Janata Party is fully prepared to discuss this in Parliament. We have nothing to hide. Let us convene a special session of Parliament – but they have no intention of speaking there. They refuse to let Parliament function; instead, they just create a ruckus,” Shah said.