BJP gives fresh spin to Rahul’s ‘vote chori’ charge, flags 10 ‘eras’ when Congress’ fortunes took a hit

New Delhi, Sep 12 As Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party’s ‘vote chori’ rhetoric galvanises public support, particularly from the weaker and marginalised sections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday sought to turn the tables on the grand old party over its repeated charges of voter fraud and electoral rolls manipulation.

Giving a fresh spin to the Congress ‘vote chori’ claims, BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao claimed that the party saw its fortunes dipping multiple times, from 1984 to 2024, and this was driven by multiple parties and leaders of that particular ‘era’, and therefore its claims of electoral malpractice under the Modi government were 'misdirected and misplaced'. He listed at least 10 instances when the Congress governments were thrown out of power after getting badly trounced in the electoral arena.

He called out the Congress party’s duplicity in blaming the Modi government for its electoral reverses – a trend that began in 1989 and continued till 2025, and also dug deep into its voting percentage that remained on a downward spiral continuously, for three decades -- from 1989 to 2025.

"The Congress party’s worst-ever performance was registered in 2014 when it won just 44 out of 543 seats with a vote share of 19.5 per cent, and it continued through three successive terms of the Modi government," Narasimha Rao further said in a statement.

“Who all caused the loss of votes of the Congress party from 49.1 per cent in 1984 to 19.5 per cent in 2014? In Rahul Gandhi’s own terminology, who were the ‘Vote Chors’ who stole the Congress vote?” he asked.

Noting a poll analyst, Narasimha Rao went on to list out a galaxy of leaders and categorised them into 10 eras, who apparently fit the definition of Rahul Gandhi’s ‘vote chors’.

He said that the VP Singh-led Janata Dal government could be called the first ‘vote chor’ as it decimated the Congress party in the 1989 elections and halved its seat numbers from 404 in 1984 to a paltry 197 in 1989, while its vote share also saw a steep decline from 49.1 per cent to 39.5 per cent.

SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati could be called ‘Vote Chors 2 and 3’, he said, as the former uprooted the grand old party from Uttar Pradesh while the latter branded it as an anti-Dalit party in the 1993 elections. The collective nudging of the Congress party by the two regional satraps saw it getting pushed to the margins of UP’s electoral turf – a jolt it could never recover. In the 1985 Assembly elections, the Congress party got 269 out of 425 seats, but the 1993 elections saw its tally crashing to a measly 28 seats, with just 15.1 per cent vote share.

“Congress lost its dominant position in West Bengal politics after Jyoti Basu became CM in 1977, and during his uninterrupted reign of 24 years, its position only diminished. After the formation of the Mamata-led TMC govt, Congress became a virtual non-entity in West Bengal politics,” he stated, hinting that Jyoti Basu and Mamata Banerjee could be called ‘vote chors 4 and 5’ under Rahul Gandhi’s style of politics.

Further, mapping the constant decline of the Congress party over the years, he stated that Sharad Pawar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Karunanidhi and Stalin, Shibu Soren and Hemant Soren and Arvind Kejriwal could be labelled as Vote Chors No 6,7,8,9 and 10 going by Rahul’s benchmark of probity in politics.

The Congress party’s dominance in Maharashtra ended with the formation of Sharad Pawar-led NCP in 1999. Its vote share fell from 51.2 per cent in 1984 to 18.3 per cent in the 2014 polls.

Bihar was one of the biggest contributors to the Congress’s tally of 404 seats in 1984; however, the rise of Lalu Yadav marked its downfall and triggered its rapid decline over the years. In the 1984 Lok Sabha polls, the party saw its peak performance with 51.8 vote share; however, that ebbed to just 8.6 per cent vote share in the 2014 polls.

“In Tamil Nadu, Congress party’s vote share has fallen from 40.5 per cent in 1984 to an abysmal 4.4 per cent in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014. Whom would Rahul Gandhi blame for his party’s decline and ‘vote chori’ in Tamil Nadu?” the former BJP MP asked.

In Jharkhand too, Congress saw its downfall with the rise of the Soren duo – Shibu Soren and Hemant Soren, whom he said could be dubbed as ‘vote chor no 9’.

“Would Rahul Gandhi care to explain why he is running a coalition government in Jharkhand with its ’Vote Chor’ Hemant Soren?” he asked.

Narasimha Rao further stated that the rise of Arvind Kejriwal caused the annihilation of the Congress party in Delhi.

Notably, the Congress party won 52 out of 70 states in the 1998 Delhi Assembly elections but went to draw a blank in three consecutive elections in 2015, 2020 and 2025.

Questioning the ‘unholy alliance’, Rao asked, “Why did Congress align with the high-profile ‘Vote Chor’ Arvind Kejriwal in 2024 Lok Sabha polls and why does Rahul Gandhi continue to have ‘on and off’ company with Kejriwal in the ‘INDI’ Alliance?”

He further said that the Modi era marked the proverbial final nail in the coffin of the Congress party’s declining fortunes by decimating it successively, in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and then in the 2019 and 2024 elections.

“It is high time the Congress party realises that fake narratives and shoot and scoot politics may give it instant visibility but can neither erase historical facts,” he remarked.

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