Kiren Rijiju targets Rahul Gandhi

NEW DELHI: Union minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday said Rahul Gandhi should “learn” from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as the Congress-led INDIA bloc staged a massive protest in Delhi seeking the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.“You call the government thieves. This will neither strengthen democracy nor lead to the revival of the Congress party. I want to say specifically to Rahul Gandhi: learn from Modi ji. Learn from BJP workers, who continuously serve selflessly, not for themselves but for society and the country,” Rijiju told reporters.He was referring to Rahul Gandhi and the opposition’s repeated allegations of “vote theft” against the BJP.Rijiju further asked the opposition to stop its “daily drama” against the Supreme Court and Election Commission (EC).“This daily drama by the Congress party, Rahul Gandhi and his colleagues over the Election Commission and their attacks on the Supreme Court must stop now. This drama has been going on continuously since 2014. How long will this continue? In a democracy, if you serve the people, you will get their mandate. If you cannot get the people’s mandate, you abuse the Election Commission. When the Supreme Court asks you to apologise, you then attack the Supreme Court as well and say that you do not have faith in the court. You call the Election Commission thieves,” he added.The INDIA bloc is protesting against Gyanesh Kumar and seeking his resignation over a media report that stated the two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had lodged at least 14 objections over the past 10 months regarding decisions they claimed were taken without their knowledge.

Responding to the Indian Express report, the EC said disagreements are “normal” in multi-member institutions but asserted that all final decisions were unanimous.On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to pass an interim order on a plea seeking Kumar’s suspension, saying it could not do so solely on the basis of a media report. However, the bench, led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, issued notices to the EC and the Centre in the matter.Kumar, who became an Election Commissioner in 2024 and CEC in 2025, has repeatedly been accused by the opposition of favouring the BJP.