The Bharatiya Janata Party fired back at opposition leader Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on Thursday, rejecting his claims that anti-incumbency has vanished under the current national administration and countering with historical election defeats suffered by the Congress party across multiple states.
The political clash erupted after a press briefing held in New Delhi on Thursday, September 24, 2026. During the session, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha asserted that Indian elections were being rigged and demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Gandhi pointed to an investigation by The Indian Express revealing that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally dissented against Commission decisions at least 14 times over a ten-month period.
Rahul Gandhi Questions Electoral Anti-Incumbency and Alleges Rigging
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar faced demands for his resignation from Gandhi, who simultaneously brought up his previous assertions regarding “vote chori”. Gandhi focused much of his address on what he described as a mysterious disappearance of anti-incumbency for the ruling party in major regional contests. Citing historical precedent, he noted that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi faced severe anti-incumbency within a couple of years of her 1971 wartime popularity peak, a dynamic that he argued typically affects governing parties and regional entities alike. Haryana swings from one party to another for 50 years, but suddenly anti-incumbency disappears. Maharashtra swings; suddenly that disappears. Uttar Pradesh swings, from the Samajwadi Party to the Bahujan Samaj Party, that also disappears, Gandhi told reporters.
He maintained that the Congress party had long wrestled with this fundamental question before arriving at a definitive conclusion. Despite prevailing anti-incumbency for years, it suddenly disappears from Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh,
the Congress leader alleged. This is an attack on the idea, on the basic infrastructure, and on the expression of every single Indian,
Gandhi added, accusing top leadership of undermining the Constitution and democratic institutions through vote manipulation during processes like the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
BJP Counters With Decades of Congress Election Losses
Ruling party officials pushed back swiftly against the allegations. Dismissing Rahul Gandhi’s remarks in a social media post, BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari argued that claiming the BJP has faced no anti-incumbency since 2014 is factually incorrect. Countering Rahul’s assertions, Bhandari pointed out that his party has actually suffered defeats in 20 separate electoral contests since 2014. Rahul Gandhi's Press was a damp squib! It was 'Jhoot Ki Goonj' by a frustrated leader not able to win People's support through democratic means,
Bhandari wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile, BJP MP and Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi delivered a scathing assessment of the opposition leader’s grasp of national political history during a separate media appearance. From a political point of view, his wisdom is zero, his knowledge is zero,
Trivedi said, launching a personal attack on Rahul while reeling off a lengthy list of states where the Congress party has been locked out of government for decades.
Trivedi noted that the Congress party has not held power in Tamil Nadu since 1967, a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party did not even exist. He added that the grand old party has been absent from government in West Bengal since 1977, where the Communists ruled there for 34 years from 1977 to 2011. Trivedi also cited Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha, pointing out that there had been no Congress government in Uttar Pradesh after 1989, no Congress government in Bihar after 1990, and no Congress government in Odisha since 1999.
Transparency, CCTV, and Changing Electoral Security
Expanding on the historical contrast, the ruling party argued that the opposition’s struggles stem from modern electoral transparency rather than institutional collusion. Claiming that the Congress has found success elusive due to the implementation of transparent electoral processes, Trivedi ridiculed Gandhi’s commentary. Ever since transparent elections have taken place, CCTV cameras have come in, and independent media has arrived, that's when they've started sweating to come to power,
Trivedi said.
The BJP leadership also pointed to past electoral practices, questioning whether Congress under Nehru did “vote chori”, or how Congress won in Rae Bareilly 16 times in consecutive elections, while emphasizing that anti-incumbency is definitely very consistent and strong against the Congress.
Alliance Dependency and Family Strongholds
The counter-offensive extended to the opposition’s current electoral strategy and dynastic strongholds. The ruling party asserted that the Congress party now relies heavily on regional partners to secure parliamentary seats.
According to party representatives, even traditional family strongholds require outside backing to survive at the ballot box. BJP leaders highlighted that anti-incumbency is an established truth of this country that has persisted across decades, and that Gandhi’s arguments show a total absence of political wisdom and a complete void of knowledge regarding Indian electoral history.