'100% certain elections are rigged': Rahul Gandhi accuses Modi, Shah of shielding Gyanesh Kumar

New Delhi: Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday alleged that India's electoral system and constitutional institutions had been undermined, claiming that elections in the country were being rigged.

Rahul Gandhi also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah of acting as "protectors" of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Gandhi said Modi and Shah would be investigated over the Election Commission controversy and called them "desh-drohis".

Addressing a press conference at Indira Bhawan in New Delhi, Gandhi questioned why the anti-incumbency sentiment that has historically affected political leaders and parties appeared to be missing in the case of Modi, Shah and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Gandhi said he was "100 per cent certain" that elections had been compromised, reiterating his allegations of irregularities in the electoral process.

"I can say with certainty that Indian elections -- 2024 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls -- were all rigged,” he said.

Reacting to an Indian Express report about two Election Commissioners raising objections to discrepancies in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, Gandhi said he wanted to highlight the pattern of anti-incumbency in Indian politics.

"I want to put some points across here about what has recently been in the news... I come from a political family, and I have spent more than 50 years in a political family... In India, there is a fundamental force called anti-incumbency that very quickly starts to resist any government. It does not spare anybody. Indira Gandhi won the Bangladesh war, was at the height of her popularity, and then suddenly, within a year or two, massive anti-incumbency, massive pressure. The same exact thing happens to leader after leader after leader. Happens to Congress leaders; it happens to regional parties, but for some reason, it never happens to Mr. Narendra Modi, does not happen to Mr. Shah, does not happen to the BJP."

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Rahul Gandhi questions disappearance of anti-incumbency

Gandhi cited electoral trends in several states, including Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, to question why anti-incumbency appeared to have disappeared in recent elections.

"Haryana swings from one party to another for 50 years. Suddenly anti-incumbency disappears. Maharashtra swings; suddenly it disappears. Uttar Pradesh swings. Sometimes Samajwadi, sometimes BSP; it disappears. Madhya Pradesh, it disappears. Gujarat, it disappears. This has been a fundamental question for us. We can understand the popularity of a person, and the performance of a government, but we cannot understand how anti-incumbency disappears," he said.

Drawing comparisons with countries that do not have democratic systems, Gandhi said anti-incumbency was a defining feature of democratic politics.

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"Anti-incumbency does not exist in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. It does not exist in North Korea. There is no democracy on this planet where anti-incumbency does not exist," he said.

'If the vote has been destroyed, then our Constitution has been destroyed'

Gandhi said the vote was the foundation of India's constitutional and institutional framework, arguing that any alleged damage to the electoral process would have wider implications for democracy.

"From the vote, which is supposed to be protected by the Election Commission, our Constitution gets its power. From the Constitution, our laws are made, and from our laws emerge our institutions. This is a chain," he said.

"If the vote has been destroyed, then our constitution has been destroyed. If our constitution has been destroyed, our laws are illegal. If our laws are illegal, our institutions are meaningless," Gandhi added.

He said the alleged irregularities in the electoral process amounted to an attack on the fundamental rights and democratic representation of citizens.

"The central question here is this is not just an attack on the vote; this is an attack on the idea, the basic infrastructure, and the expression of every single Indian person. We have been saying it again and again and again that there is a problem with the vote," he said.

Rahul Gandhi targets Gyanesh Kumar over EC row

Gandhi alleged that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, selected by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, was now being held responsible by two Election Commissioners for the chaos and damage to India's electoral system.

Referring to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's popularity following the Bangladesh War, Rahul Gandhi said even leaders who enjoyed widespread public support eventually faced anti-incumbency after being in power for a prolonged period.

He said anti-incumbency was a natural feature of Indian politics and questioned why it had not played out in the same way against Modi, Shah and the BJP.