Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], October 30 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Telangana Saha Prabhari Abhay Patel on Friday took a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over the party’s defeat in all four Karnataka Legislative Council seats, saying that the results had exposed the Congress leader’s allegations of electronic voting machine (EVM) manipulation.
Reacting to Rahul Gandhi’s repeated allegations of EVM tampering and demand for paper ballots, Patel said Congress had failed to win seats even in elections conducted through ballot papers.
“Congress leader Rahul Gandhi keeps saying over and over that the EVMs are hacked, the EVMs are rigged; he keeps saying this everywhere. But elections should still be held using paper ballots. In all the elections held on paper ballots recently, Congress hasn’t won a single seat,” Patel told ANI.
Taking a swipe at Rahul Gandhi, he said, “EVM theft, vote theft–there hasn’t even been vote theft, there’s been no EVM theft, Rahul Gandhi’s brain has been stolen.”
Referring to the Congress party’s performance in Karnataka, Patel said it had lost all four Teachers’ and Graduates’ constituencies in the Legislative Council elections.
“He’s saying it anyway, but today it’s been proven that you won’t win even with EVMs; you won’t win even with paper ballots. In the coming days, you will be left only in the pages of history. Congress was a party that used to contest elections; things will get to that point, and Rahul Gandhi will get the credit for it,” he said.
Using the Hindi proverb ‘Naach na jaane, aangan tedha’ (when a person lacks the skill to do a task but blames external factors instead of admitting their own incompetence), Patel further criticised Congress leadership over its electoral performance.
The remarks came after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), comprising the BJP and Janata Dal (Secular), secured a clean sweep in the four Karnataka Legislative Council constituencies, winning two Teachers’ and two Graduates’ seats.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Congress President BK Hariprasad had accepted the party’s defeat in all four constituencies, saying the outcome was not a surprise as three of the seats were previously held by the BJP.
“We have lost all four Teachers’ and Graduates’ seats. I humbly accept the verdict of both graduates and teachers. It has not come as a surprise for us, as three seats were held by the BJP. This is NDA’s victory, not BJP’s,” Hariprasad had said.
He also said that victory and defeat were part of democracy and that Congress would identify and address its shortcomings.
Meanwhile, Congress MLA K N Rajanna said the party’s opposition to EVMs was a national policy decision taken by its high command. He explained that preferential voting in these Legislative Council elections necessitated the use of ballot papers.
The NDA fielded three BJP candidates and one JD(S) candidate in the elections. JD(S) candidate AP Ranganath defeated Congress candidate Puttanna in the Bengaluru Teachers’ constituency, while BJP candidate Shashil G Namoshi won the North-East Teachers’ constituency for the fifth time.
In the Graduates’ constituencies, BJP candidates S V Sankanur and K M Suresh also registered victories, completing the NDA’s 4-0 sweep. (ANI)
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