Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera on Monday, 21 April, defended party leader Rahul Gandhi over his criticism of the Election Commission of India (ECI) on foreign soil and asserted that it doesn't matter from which part of the world one speaks.
Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, the All India Congress Committee (AICC)'s media and publicity department chairman noted that the Opposition party has expressed doubts about the ECI's functioning for a while and said the poll panel should reply to them.
"We have doubts about the ECI. It is not humanly possible to have 10 to 13 percentage points rise in voting in the last hour of polling,'' he contended.
To a question on the BJP slamming Gandhi over his criticism of the ECI at an event in the United States, Khera said in today's circumstances it doesn't matter from which part of the world one speaks from.
"Let the ECI reply (to issues raised by Congress)... Why is the BJP responding? We have learnt from Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi to speak about domestic political issues on foreign soil,'' he maintained.
Asked about West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee not visiting riot-hit Murshidabad district, Khera responded that in the last two years, PM Modi has not toured ethnic violence-affected Manipur either.
The ECI is "compromised", Gandhi alleged at an event in Boston in the US on Sunday, 20 April, as he attacked the poll panel, citing turnout figures in the Maharashtra elections in 2024. This drew a strong reaction from the BJP, which called him a "traitor".
The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha claimed that, in simple terms, more people voted in the November 2024 assembly elections in Maharashtra than there were adults in the state, where the BJP-led Mahayuti coalition emerged victorious with a thumping majority.
“The Election Commission gave us a voting figure for 5:30 p.m., and between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., 65 lakh voters voted. This is physically impossible to happen.
“For a voter to vote, it takes approximately 3 minutes, and if you do the math, it would mean that there were lines of voters till 2 a.m. — but this did not happen,” the Congress MP said.
