BJP says Rahul’s account of INDIA bloc meeting with President ‘politically motivated’

The Bharatiya Janata Party accused the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, of misrepresenting what transpired when leaders of the Opposition bloc, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), met President Droupadi Murmu on Friday evening to raise allegations of “vote chori (theft)”. 

Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi alleged that Mr. Gandhi, in his statement after the meeting, twisted what had occurred. “The President of India is not just an individual but an institution,” Mr Trivedi said, adding that Mr. Gandhi’s version of events after the INDIA bloc’s meeting with the President was “politically motivated rather than factual”.

Mr. Gandhi had said after the meeting that said he was “shocked and surprised” that the President had neither “denied” nor “questioned” the Opposition’s allegations of vote theft.  “She accepted our statement and asked us to bring the proof, which we are happy to provide,” he said.

In the backdrop of the results of the bypolls to five Assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat coming on Friday (October 9, 2026), Mr. Trivedi asked whether the Congress had checked the voter list, or whether its election and counting agents had found any discrepancies in the process. “First, the Congress said electronic voting machines (EVMs) were being hacked; then alleged that the special intensive revision (SIR) was cutting out voters. Both cannot be true. The Congress has 45 days within which to appeal the results; will they be doing so in the light of their accusations?” he asked. 

He said that the statements and demands made by Mr. Gandhi regarding the conduct of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and “misrepresenting” what transpired in the meeting with President Murmu made him “dangerous” for democracy in India.

The INDIA bloc has been protesting this week against the SIR exercise and demanding the resignation of Mr. Kumar over allegations of vote theft.