Kerala BJP chief tells Rahul Gandhi to 'go to Bangladesh' amid voter-roll protest row
Kerala BJP president and Nemom MLA Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Thursday asked Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi to "go to Bangladesh" if he wished to practise what he called politics of anarchy, remarks that have sharpened the political confrontation over the ongoing revision of electoral rolls.
In a Facebook post in Malayalam, the former Union Minister of State said Mr. Gandhi was "attempting to create anarchy" in India and suggested that he take along "the Jamaat-e-Islami, which supports him" to pursue politics there.
Mr. Chandrasekhar said Mr. Gandhi's "dream" would not be realised in India, asserting that the country's democracy was "protected" by the Bharatiya Janata Party and by 140 crore Indians.
The remarks came in the backdrop of protests by Congress-led Opposition parties against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the BJP-led government at the Centre over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters' lists and allegations that eligible voters have been deleted from the electoral rolls.
The SIR is an exercise ordered by the Election Commission to verify and clean up electoral rolls in the states where it is under way. The Commission has maintained that the process is intended to remove duplicate, dead and shifted entries and that no genuine voter will be denied a place on the rolls. Opposition parties, however, allege that the exercise has led to the removal of large numbers of legitimate voters and have demanded greater transparency. The dispute is now before the courts as well as on the streets, with regular demonstrations by Opposition legislators.
Referring to the general election results, Mr. Chandrasekhar said the Congress had lost in 2014 and 2019 and was defeated again in 2024 despite what he described as false propaganda. He said the message given by the people had been "clearly understood" by the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
He further alleged that the Congress could no longer win the confidence of voters and that people would not support the party on the basis of its governance in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana and Kerala, all states where the party is in power or shares power.
Mr. Chandrasekhar also alleged that Mr. Gandhi was trying to divert public attention by spreading falsehoods and by "creating anarchy" in order to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mr. Gandhi's office and the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee did not immediately respond to the remarks. The charges made by the BJP leader are allegations, and the Congress has consistently rejected similar characterisations of its protests, describing them as a democratic demand for transparency in the electoral process.
The exchange adds to an increasingly heated political climate in Kerala, where the BJP has been seeking to expand its presence and where the Congress-led United Democratic Front and the ruling Left Democratic Front are both preparing for coming electoral battles. Political rhetoric around the Election Commission and the voters' list is likely to intensify as the SIR process continues, with the Opposition pressing for safeguards for voters and the ruling party at the Centre defending the exercise as a necessary reform.
