BJP MP Anurag Thakur on Wednesday fiercely responded to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s allegations against the Election Commission (EC), accusing him and the Congress party of a long-standing tradition of questioning the electoral process whenever they lose.

Thakur also took a dig at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, recalling her 2005 Lok Sabha intervention. “I want to ask Mamata Banerjee a question. In the Lok Sabha in 2005, she threw documents claiming that the voter list included illegal Bangladeshi migrants. Now, when we are trying to clean that mess, she is creating hurdles. Was she lying then or is she lying now?” he said.

Addressing Rahul Gandhi directly, Thakur alleged that questioning the EC has been a consistent pattern in the Gandhi family. “This family and party have had a tradition from the beginning that if you lose an election, you raise questions about the Election Commission, the voters, or the functioning of the Election Commission. Indira Gandhi had said, voters are a bunch of fools. When Rajiv Gandhi lost the election, he blamed the ballot paper. Rahul Gandhi’s father used to say, conduct elections with voting machines, and Rahul Gandhi says, conduct elections with ballot papers,” Thakur remarked.

The BJP MP’s comments come amid heightened political tension over voter list revisions and electoral credibility, with both Congress and Trinamool Congress raising objections to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists in Bihar and other states.