Congress Escalates Conflict With Election Commission Over Internal Dissent

Venugopal dismissed BJP leader JP Nadda’s recent defense of the Election Commission, labeling Nadda’s attempt to characterize opposition critiques as falsehoods a “whitewash.” The Congress general secretary asserted that the internal objections raised by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi—reportedly cited 14 times over 10 months—validate Rahul Gandhi’s warnings regarding the integrity of the poll panel. The Congress party claims these internal disagreements over Form 6 and voter database access suggest the CEC acted to undermine democratic processes.

To manifest this discontent, Congress workers staged demonstrations at over 1,000 locations nationwide. Venugopal described the protests as a natural reaction to what he termed a "chori election" narrative, pointing to widespread public anger concerning electoral conduct in Haryana, Maharashtra, and Bihar. While the Election Commission maintains that these internal queries were standard administrative inputs resulting in unanimous final decisions, the opposition remains unconvinced. The Congress Working Committee is set to deliberate on further escalation this Tuesday, with an INDIA bloc meeting scheduled for September 30 to finalize a unified strategy against the commission's current leadership.