Rahul’s protest a political drama, claims made by Congress are lies: BJP

BJP cited the ECI statement to assert that the poll panel did not receive any request from either the Congress party or any other constituent of the INDIA bloc for a meeting

Describing the Congress-led protests against the special intensive revision (SIR) as a “political drama” staged by the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday (October 6, 2026) accused him and the Congress of “lying” to mislead the people. The Election Commission of India’s (ECI) formal statement on the issue exposed their claims, it said.

At a late-evening press conference, BJP MP and spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi cited the ECI statement to assert that the poll panel did not receive any request from either the Congress party or any other constituent of the INDIA bloc for a meeting.

According to the ECI, it received information from the Delhi Police around 4 p.m. that a delegation of MPs led by Mr. Gandhi wanted to meet the Commission and submit a memorandum. A police officer then conveyed that the meeting had been sought with a group of 240 MPs at Parliament House Annexe. As such meetings are held only on ECI premises, the poll panel offered to send its senior-most officer on duty to receive the memorandum. However, the proposal was declined.

Mr. Trivedi alleged that the sequence of events demonstrated that the Congress leaders had no genuine intention to meet the Commission, but only to create a “political spectacle”.

Questioning the claim about the number of MPs at the protest, Mr. Trivedi said the Congress had 99 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 30 in the Rajya Sabha, and the Samajwadi Party had 37 MPs, who, he said, were not at the protest site in the evening. He said the Trinamool MPs were also absent, while the DMK and the Aam Aadmi Party stayed away.

“It is very clear that the entire exercise was carried out to turn democracy into a monarchy, while wearing the mask of democracy, and to establish that very monarchy,” said Mr. Trivedi.

The BJP leader said the sit-in by Mr. Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and their party colleagues at Akashvani Bhawan reflected the “same mindset of the Congress that does not accept democracy”.

“When they were in power, it was from this very Akashvani that Indira ji announced the Emergency. Today, they are in the opposition. Still, through their activities on the same Akashvani premises, they have shown that they do not care about democracy and believe that victory and defeat should be decided as per their wishes,” he said.

Mr. Trivedi questioned at whose behest the Congress “continued to level allegations despite being repeatedly proven wrong”. “Congress does not go to court on any matter because all its allegations are baseless,” he said.