Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju criticized Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday, following Gandhi’s renewed allegations of “vote chori” (vote theft) targeting the Election Commission and its Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Gandhi had posted a 37-second PowerPoint clip alleging that, at 4 am on December 19, 2022, two voters were deleted from the rolls in just 36 seconds—a process he described as evidence of electoral fraud. Rijiju retorted that Gandhi must accept responsibility for Congress’s successive electoral defeats and accused him of undermining India’s democratic system, stressing that "the nation won’t believe Rahul Gandhi... People like him want to stop the engine that is driving India forward," while crediting Prime Minister Modi as the leader of the poor, farmers, and common people.
Earlier, Gandhi alleged mass-deletions from Karnataka’s voter rolls, citing fake log-ins and out-of-state phone numbers used via “centralised software,” and presented a case from Aland as evidence. The Election Commission responded that it had itself filed a police complaint regarding the 6,018 deleted names and noted that Congress won the seat in question, rebutting claims of BJP benefit. The EC stated voter deletions cannot be carried out by the public and labeled Gandhi's accusations “baseless." BJP leaders like Anurag Thakur also countered, saying Congress had lost 90 percent of elections under Gandhi’s leadership and accused him of increased frustration and habitual, false allegations.