Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that it is not just Congress but other parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party and the Nationalist Congress Party are also not winning elections in India. The Congress MP alleged that the reason was "wholesale capture of the country's institutional framework" and "an absolute financial and media dominance by the BJP."
During a virtual conversation with Nicholas Burns, the former US undersecretary of state for political affairs and Harvard Kennedy School Professor, Rahul Gandhi said, "In Assam, the gentleman who runs our campaign has been sending videos of BJP candidates running around voting machines in their cars. But there is nothing going on in national media."
"There is a wholesale capture of the institutional framework of this country. There is absolute financial and media dominance that the BJP has. It is not just Congress, the BSP, SP, NCP are not winning elections," Rahul Gandhi said.
"To fight elections, I need institutional structures, I need a judicial system that protects me, I need a media that is reasonably free, I need financial parity, I need a whole set of structures that actually allow me to operate a political party. I don't have them, he added.
He also alleged that the institutions that are supposed to support a fair political fight do not do so anymore.
The Election Commission on Friday suspended four officials after a video surfaced on social media purportedly showing an EVM being found in a BJP candidate's car in Patharkandi constituency following the second round of polling in Assam.
( With inputs from ANI )
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