‘Vote chori, govt chori… now party chori’: Rahul slams BJP, ECI

New Delhi: Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has accused the BJP and the Election Commission of working together to split political parties, after the poll panel barred both rival Trinamool Congress factions from using the party’s name and election symbol in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly bypolls.

Gandhi criticised the EC’s interim order in a post on X. He said the action against the TMC followed a pattern similar to what happened during the splits in the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party.

According to Gandhi, the same process has been repeated in each case. He alleged that the BJP and the Election Commission work together to sow divisions within political parties and then seize their election symbols.

Gandhi further argued that if an entire political party could be taken away through such a process, concerns could also arise over the protection of voters’ choices. He described what he called vote theft, government theft and now party theft as signs of democratic decline in the country.

“First Shiv Sena, then NCP, and now Trinamool Congress. Every time, the same pattern — BJP and the Election Commission join forces to split a party. Then its election symbol is snatched away,” Rahul wrote on X. “When an entire party can be stolen, it’s hardly surprising that the votes of millions of Indians can be stolen too.”

The Congress leader also accused the Election Commission of failing in its constitutional responsibility to protect the people’s mandate. He alleged that instead of safeguarding free and fair elections, the poll panel was helping forces seeking to undermine the electoral verdict.

“Vote chori. Government chori. Now party chori — these have become symbols of our democratic decline,” Rahul wrote.

Gandhi said the issue was not limited to former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. He portrayed it as a wider concern for political parties and voters seeking free and fair elections.