BJP leaders outraged over Rahul Gandhi’s ‘fake votes’ remark in Rohtak

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s allegation of “fake votes” in the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections has stirred a political storm among BJP leaders in Rohtak, considered a stronghold of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda, where the Congress registered a clean sweep by winning all four seats in the polls.

In a sharp counterattack, former ministers and senior BJP leaders— Krishan Murti Hooda and Manish Grover— on Thursday not only dismissed Rahul Gandhi’s allegations but also held Hooda responsible for the Congress’s overall defeat in the state polls.

“Haryana Congress leaders are misleading Rahul Gandhi by feeding him a false narrative of ‘fake votes’ to shift the blame for their defeat in the Assembly elections onto the BJP government. Everyone, including the Congress workers, knows that the party failed to return to power because of Bhupinder Hooda and his MP son Deepender Hooda, who not only encouraged factionalism within the party but also disrespected other senior Congress leaders,” said Krishan Murti.

He claimed that the BJP had won the Haryana elections on the basis of development, providing jobs without parchi and kharchi, ensuring welfare of farmers and other sections of society while the previous Congress government led by Bhupinder Hooda not only acquired costly land of the farmers in the name of development but also promoted parchi and kharchi system in jobs. Krishan Murti advised Rahul Gandhi to take action against those Congress leaders responsible for the party’s defeat in Haryana instead of spreading misleading information at the behest of them.

Manish Grover, while addressing a press conference, said the Congress’s likely defeat in the Bihar Assembly elections had prompted Rahul Gandhi to raise this misleading issue in an attempt to prevent a possible rebellion within the party after the poll results. The Congress’s defeat would inevitably trigger a blame game among its leaders, he claimed.

“Instead of campaigning in the Bihar Assembly polls, Rahul Gandhi is making allegations of ‘fake votes’ and that too, a year after the elections in Haryana. He should clarify why his local party leaders, workers, and polling agents did not lodge complaints about fake votes at the time of the elections. What has prompted him to raise the issue now? The Congress leaders always question the election process only when they face defeat. Everything seems fair to them when the party forms governments, as in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka,” Grover added.