Opinion

Yet another faux pas by Rahul Gandhi

From ‘vote chori’ to the CEC, Rahul Gandhi keeps electoral issues at the centre of his attack

October 1, 2026

Rahul Gandhi’s election offensive enters a new phase

Finally, the cat is out of the bag. The Congress Working Committee, which is described by senior Congress leaders themselves as the Christian Working Committee/ Child Welfare Committee, has demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.[1]

From “Chowkidar Chor” to “Vote Chori” to “Samvidhan Chori”, the Congress has travelled thousands of miles but without success. The chair of Prime Minister still eludes the eternal prince-in-waiting as all attempts to dislodge the BJP-led government at the Centre have fallen by the wayside. The latest demand for the resignation of Modi and Co. proves beyond doubt that the front-page report in The Indian Express about the internecine war between the election commissioners too has misfired.

The reporter who filed the Election Commission copy was Ritika Chopra, the resident editor of Indian Express, Mumbai, who is a favourite of chief editor Raj Kamal Jha. She was specially summoned by Jha to New Delhi and asked to file the report based on a feature prepared by Damini Nath, an editor of the daily based in New Delhi. Nath, who felt sidelined by the editorial managers, gave vent to her disappointment by sending WhatsApp messages to her friends and colleagues in the media. It was Damini Nath who was reporting news and developments from the ECI.

Neither Chopra nor Nath are aware of the kind of quarrel that took place between the then Chief Election Commissioner T N Seshan and Election Commissioner GVG Krishnamurthy. Seshan went to the extent of describing Krishnamurthy as a mentally unsound person during a press meet.

Coming back to the recent controversy over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the Congress is well aware of the Supreme Court verdict on a plea filed by the Opposition parties challenging the legality of the ECI’s powers to sanitise the electoral roll. A two-judge Bench of the apex court consisting of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi had ruled that the Election Commission is the only authority tasked with the sanitisation of electoral rolls across India. “It is for the Election Commission of India to decide when and how the electoral rolls should be revised. The electoral rolls have to be sanitised before any election,” they said in their ruling. The Opposition Congress, the CPI(M) and the RJD were waiting for a windfall following the Indian Express disclosure about the “war” between the election commissioners. The report by Ritika Chopra did not quote any documents or evidence to substantiate her claim that all is not well between the commissioners. The Congress Party, which was groping in the dark to get an issue with which it can attack the government, went to town with a press meet addressed by Rahul Gandhi.

But the question of where the evidence was to substantiate the newspaper’s claim remained elusive. The modus operandi of the Gandhi Parivar as well as Congress leaders brought to mind the advertisements featuring Hero Honda bikes which had “Fill it, Shut it & Forget it” as catchwords. The CWC jumped into the fight between the election commissioners and demanded the immediate resignation of the CEC and cancellation of all election results since 2014.

With the Indian Express video itself accepting the fact that the difference of opinion between the election commissioners was nothing new, the report lost its relevance and the controversy died a natural death. But Rahul Gandhi and his court jesters continue to be on Cloud Nine and refuse to understand the reality. The Indian Express report has succeeded in bringing together all the constituents of the INDIA Alliance for a last-ditch fight against the BJP in the upcoming elections to the Legislative Assemblies of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand. Comrade M A Baby, the general secretary of the CPI(M), has taken over the leadership of the INDIA Alliance, and the group is meeting in New Delhi to devise strategies to pack up the BJP from New Delhi. Since the Legislative Assembly elections are nearly five months away, another round of fireworks could be expected from Rahul Gandhi and his acolytes.

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

Reference:

[1] Not just CEC, PM Modi and Shah should also resign for ‘vote chori’, says CWC – Sep 30, 2026, TOI

For all the latest updates, download PGurus App.