New Delhi, Oct 28 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday remarked that the Congress "failed to make an impact" in the recently held Legislative Council elections across four states despite ballot papers being used to conduct the polling, while accusing Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi of making "false allegations" against the country's electoral process. Addressing a press conference, BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi said: "Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party, who have created a storm of false claims about India’s electoral process, have seen their aspirations for anarchy shattered by the results of the MLC elections...the Congress party has so far remained at zero. It is now almost clear that the Congress party has failed to make its presence felt in these elections."

He added: "These elections were conducted using ballot boxes and ballot papers, yet the Congress failed to establish its presence." Trivedi claimed that this makes it clear that the Congress party "lacks the ability" to secure public support or the support of the voters in any election, whether it is conducted using EVMs or ballot papers. Targeting the LoP for the anti-SIR rally scheduled for November 1, the BJP leader said: "The Congress party should understand that Rahul Gandhi, after spending nearly two weeks sightseeing and enjoying himself, has now returned to the limelight and is talking about launching a movement that could create problems for the Indian economy. He must understand that neither the public nor the MLAs are with him. The Congress party must understand that public support is earned through hard work, not through sightseeing and leisure trips."

Citing BJP chief Nitin Nabin's visit to Uttar Pradesh and Union Home Minister Amit Shah's visit to Punjab, Trivedi said: "In contrast, Rahul Gandhi had disappeared from the scene and was wandering around 'Champa'. 'Champa' was the ancient name of Vietnam. After that, he expects to receive public support. I would therefore like to tell the Congress party... give up your habit of avoiding hard work, and the slogan of 'vote theft' will automatically disappear." Meanwhile, Sudhanshu Trivedi also lashed out at Congress and Rahul Gandhi after the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) tendered an unconditional apology to Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant over a controversial post shared recently on the X handle of the party’s state unit.

"The Keralam Congress had posted a highly objectionable, derogatory and offensive tweet regarding the Chief Justice of India. Now it has issued an unconditional apology over the tweet. The Congress party has been notorious for such actions in the past as well. You may recall that during the Lok Sabha elections, the Telangana Congress had shared a misleading, edited video of the Home Minister from its official X handle," the BJP MP said. "It is now clear that the Congress, which resorts to falsehoods to attack India’s constitutional institutions, is openly admitting its actions before the Supreme Court of India," he added.

Further, Trivedi took a jibe at the LoP while referring to Rahul Gandhi's unconditional apology to the Supreme Court in 2019 for wrongly attributing the political slogan "chowkidar chor hai" to the court's Rafale case proceedings. "Therefore, you are a judicially certified 'Mafiveer'," he remarked. "I want to ask Rahul Gandhi two things -- when will he apologise to the Supreme Court for marching to the institution and when will he start working hard (to win polls) instead of creating chaos?" Trivedi said.

--IANS