Vote theft, party theft… murder of democracy: Opposition hits out at BJP, backs Mamata Banerjee over Trinamool Congress symbol freeze

Former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee during a press conference in South Kolkata’s Kalighat on Friday. (ANI)

The Congress hit out at the BJP on Friday over the arrest of its Nandigram bypoll candidate Milan Pradhan in a 19-year-old case, calling the move a “political revenge and murder of democracy”.

Reacting sharply to the development, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi said: “The arrest of Congress candidate Milan Pradhan for the Nandigram by-election is no coincidence — it is political revenge, the murder of democracy.  The BJP has no faith in fair elections — that’s why it wants to cling to power sometimes through vote theft, sometimes through stealing governments, and sometimes through stealing parties.”

“The Congress will neither fear nor bow down.  We will fight—and we will win,” said the Congress MP in a post on X.

AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal said using a 19-year-old case to arrest the Congress candidate is an indication that the BJP would go to any lengths to “hijack” democracy.

“Democracy is on ventilator in BJP’s West Bengal. This is BJP’s latest effort to ensure ‘Opposition-Mukt Bharat’, successfully converting our great Constitutional democracy into a Banana Republic,” Venugopal said, adding, “We are the party that fought the oppressive British rule and drove them away, these petty intimidation tactics by their cheap copycats are not going to scare us.”

Earlier in the day, leaders of the INDIA alliance threw their weight behind former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee after the Election Commission directed the two Trinamool Congress factions not to use the party name, All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), and its ‘Jora Ghash Phul’ (two flowers with grass) symbol in the October 6 bypolls.

“First Shiv Sena, then NCP, and now Trinamool Congress. Every time, the same pattern — BJP and the Election Commission join forces to split a party. Then its election symbol is snatched away,” Rahul Gandhi said in a post on X.

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“When an entire party can be stolen, it’s hardly surprising that the votes of millions of Indians can be stolen too. Vote theft. Government theft. Now party theft — these have become symbols of our democratic decline. The ECI’s constitutional responsibility is to protect the mandate — but instead, it’s aiding those very forces that overturn the people’s verdict,” he said.

Venugopal said the verdict is “CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s late night birthday gift to (PM) Modi ji”.

“Those who fought against the BJP, under Mamata Banerjee’s leadership, are now being given the red carpet to rebel against her and commit the unconstitutional sin of defection with the ECI’s help. The ECI has once again proved that it is nothing more than a puppet in the hands of the BJP —a tool to destroy democracy bit by bit,” he said.

Aam Aadmi national convener Arvind Kejriwal posted on X: “Modi ji’s birthday gift to the country. Will they win the election this way?”

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Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “If the Election Commission takes decisions to strengthen democratic values, its respect will increase. I don’t have anything else to say… I just want to ask whether the affidavits submitted by us to the Election Commission were received?”

The BJP hit back at Rahul Gandhi, alleging that he did not appear to know that parties such as the TMC and the NCP emerged after breaking away from the Congress.

Calling the Congress ‘Bhasmasur’ — the mythical demon who would destroy those who came near it — of Indian politics, BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said: “Rahul Gandhi cannot even read enough to understand that the full form of NCP is ‘Nationalist Congress Party’ and that the name of the Trinamool Congress also contains the word ‘Congress’.”

“Sharad Pawar had separated from the Congress in 1999 over the issue of leadership by a person of foreign origin, while Mamata Banerjee had left the party in 1997 after being distressed by the internal situation within the Congress and later ousted the Congress itself from West Bengal,” he said.

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Gandhi’s statement, Trivedi added, was a “peculiar example of his political ignorance” and of making a mockery of his own party’s history, whereas the BJP and the Jana Sangh “have always struggled to uphold democratic values”.