Senior National Spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Sudhanshu Trivedi accused the Congress of sidelining and undermining several people, including its own leaders, over the years.
| Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
In response to Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of “government theft” and “party theft” after the Trinamool Congress symbol freeze, the BJP on Friday (September 18, 2026) said the Congress’s history was replete with instances of “betraying allies and bringing down elected governments”.
The Election Commission had barred two factions of the Trinamool from using the existing party symbol and name, and allotted them fresh symbols and names for use in the upcoming Assembly bypolls.
Responding to the development on Friday, Mr. Gandhi posted on X: “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. When an entire party can be stolen, it is hardly surprising that the votes of millions of Indians can be stolen too.”
“Vote theft. Government theft. Now party theft – these have become symbols of our democratic decline…,” he alleged.
Sudhanshu’s retort
BJP MP and spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi retorted, describing the Congress as the “Bhasmasur” of Indian politics, alleging that whoever came in contact with it was eventually destroyed.
At a press conference, he said that “the Congress, throughout its history, has betrayed its allies, brought down elected State governments in an unconstitutional manner, and repeatedly divided the party by sidelining even its own veteran leaders”, while the BJP was “a symbol of democratic values and unity”.
“Rahul Gandhi cannot even read enough to understand that the full form of NCP is ‘Nationalist Congress Party’ and that the name of the Trinamool Congress also contains the word ‘Congress’. Sharad Pawar separated from the Congress in 1999 over the issue of leadership by a person of foreign origin, while Mamata Banerjee left the party in 1997 after being distressed by the internal situation within the Congress, and later ousted the Congress itself from West Bengal,” he said.
Mr. Trivedi accused the Congress of sidelining and undermining several people, including its own leaders, over the years. “…in the 1969 Presidential election, Indira Gandhi called for votes against her own party’s candidate, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy”, said the BJP leader.
He further alleged that senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot was recently “prevented from becoming Congress president”. “The betrayal of Chaudhary Charan Singh during the Janata Party regime, the merger of the Lok Dal in Haryana in 1980, and the absorption of Chimanbhai Patel’s Janata Dal into the Congress in 1992” were among the alleged instances he cited.
Mr. Trivedi said that after the Congress came to power at the Centre in 1980, Opposition governments in nine States were dismissed. The then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister T. Anjaiah was “humiliated” in 1982, Karpoori Thakur’s Lok Dal split in 1982, the N. T. Rama Rao’s government in Andhra Pradesh was dismissed in 1984, the National Conference split the same year, and the then Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar’s government fell within three months in 1991, he alleged.
Mr. Trivedi also referred to the dismissal of the S.R. Bommai government in Karnataka in 1989. “Subsequently, in 1994, a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court ruled that a government’s majority cannot be determined by the personal opinion of a Governor or the President, but only through a floor test in the House,” he said, also mentioning the “1993-94 Jharkhand Mukti Morcha bribery” case.
He also alleged that the Union governments led by Janata Dal (Secular) chief H.D. Deve Gowda and Janata Dal’s I.K. Gujral were brought down by the Congress in the late 90s.
Published – September 18, 2026 11:04 pm IST
