Gaurav Gogoi slams CEC: ‘Why didn’t he ask BJP the same thing?’

Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi on Monday accused Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of showing bias after the poll body chief publicly criticised Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi. Gogoi said the remarks had "undermined" the credibility of a key constitutional office.

"Why didn't the Chief Election Commissioner make the same request to the BJP? They've also held a press conference, but why isn't the Chief Election Commissioner treating the BJP the same way as the Congress? I think the Chief Election Commissioner, through his press conference, has only undermined the reputation of this constitutional post," Gogoi told reporters.

The comments came a day after the CEC rejected Gandhi’s allegations of "vote theft" in Bihar, calling them an "insult to the Constitution," and asking the Congress leader to either provide evidence through a signed affidavit or apologise to the nation.

Gogoi also reacted to the NDA naming Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan as its Vice Presidential candidate. He said discussions were ongoing within the INDIA alliance and expressed confidence that the opposition bloc would announce a joint decision shortly.

"The INDIA alliance leaders have had a few discussions on this matter and I'm expecting that there would be a consensus and we would hear the discussion made public very soon," he said.

Meanwhile, protests by INDIA bloc MPs continued inside Parliament premises against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav, TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee, DMK’s Kanimozhi and others participated in the demonstrations, holding banners with slogans such as “Stop Vote Chori.”

The opposition has accused the Election Commission of conducting a “Silent Invisible Rigging” exercise in the state, while the BJP and treasury benches have criticised the protests, blaming the Opposition for disrupting proceedings of the monsoon session since July 21.

Despite repeated clarifications from the Election Commission, the INDIA bloc has refused to step back, framing the issue as a battle over the fairness of India’s electoral process.