The BJP on Saturday accused Rahul Gandhi and the Congress-led Opposition of using street protests to challenge electoral institutions after a major police operation in Delhi disrupted a demonstration over alleged electoral irregularities.
Defending the government, the Election Commission and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad accused the Opposition of resorting to street mobilisation out of frustration over its electoral losses. He argued that political disputes should be resolved through Parliament and elections rather than protests.
“India is not a banana republic. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, this country has never bowed and never will,” Prasad said, rejecting the Opposition's allegations and defending Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, whose resignation has emerged as a central demand of the protests.
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Speaking amid police action against the Youth Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which had called for a demonstration over alleged electoral fraud, Prasad said Indian democracy had resisted attempts to create disorder. He cited the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance's victories in bypolls in Assam, West Bengal and Puducherry as evidence that the Opposition's campaign had failed to win public support.
Prasad accused the Congress of turning protests into a political weapon following electoral setbacks, while maintaining that the BJP was not opposed to demonstrations in principle. He also claimed the protests had inconvenienced Delhi residents over the preceding days.
Delhi witnessed a major security deployment on Saturday, with police and paramilitary personnel detaining more than 1,000 people, including CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke and several other leaders. Authorities prevented protesters from reaching Jantar Mantar, citing the denial of permission for the demonstration.
Four former chief ministers — Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee, Pinarayi Vijayan and Manik Sarkar — were also detained during the day. All India Students' Association president Neha Bora was among those detained.
Rahul Gandhi, who was in Chennai for a student outreach programme, backed the protesters in a post on X, urging young people to continue their demonstrations. He said the detention of Opposition leaders and young protesters would not force them to abandon their campaign.
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Gandhi had led protests over four days during the week, while the INDIA bloc submitted a memorandum to President Droupadi Murmu on Friday, raising allegations of electoral irregularities.
Prasad separately criticised Gandhi's assertion that the President had not rejected the Opposition's “vote chori”, or vote theft, allegations during their meeting. The BJP leader said the remark amounted to an insult to the office of the President.
The Opposition's memorandum sought Kumar's resignation, repeal of the 2023 law granting legal immunity to the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners, suspension of the SIR exercise and restoration of 13.3 crore deleted voters. It also demanded a return to paper ballots and the annulment of Assembly election results over the past two years in constituencies where the Opposition claimed to have conclusive evidence of electoral fraud.
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