‘Vote Chori’ Charge Goes Global as Rahul Gandhi Targets Poll System in Berlin

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has triggered a fresh political clash with the BJP after comments in Germany. Gandhi accused the ruling party of abusing central agencies and damaging Indian democracy, drawing sharp replies from BJP leaders, who labelled the remarks anti-India and questioned Gandhi's conduct on foreign soil.

Speaking in Berlin during a five-day Germany visit, the Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition said India's institutional system was under severe strain. Gandhi alleged that agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation were being turned into political weapons, and that business leaders faced pressure for backing the Congress.

Rahul Gandhi BJP institutions and 'weaponised’ ED, CBI

At the Hertie School event, Gandhi argued that key pillars of the state were no longer neutral. "There is a wholesale capture of our institutional framework. There is a full-scale assault taking place on the institutional framework of our country," he said, claiming that long-standing checks and balances were being hollowed out.

Gandhi maintained that the Congress had helped build these institutions over decades and treated them as assets of the nation, not of any party. However, Gandhi said the BJP viewed the same institutions as instruments for political control. "But this is not how the BJP sees it. They view the institutional framework as something that belongs to them. They use it as a tool to build political power.

The Congress leader accused the government of directing investigative bodies mainly against opponents. "Our intelligence agencies, ED and CBI have been weaponised. The ED and CBI have zero cases against the BJP and most of the political cases are against the people who oppose them," he alleged, asserting that this pattern showed systematic bias in enforcement actions.

Rahul Gandhi BJP comments on democracy and elections

Extending this argument, Gandhi said India's democratic space was being squeezed and that opposition parties needed a stronger joint response. Gandhi pledged that "we will create a system of opposition resistance that will succeed. We are not fighting the BJP, but their capture of the Indian institutional structure." Gandhi said the contest was not against one party alone but over the nature of the state itself.

Gandhi also revisited earlier claims about the fairness of recent polls, again alleging that votes were manipulated. He said the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections were "rigged" for the BJP, repeating a charge raised multiple times in India. Gandhi added that similar questions surrounded the Maharashtra outcome, which the Congress has publicly challenged.

#WATCH | Berlin, Germany | Addressing at Hertie School on "Politics Is The Art Of Listening", Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi says, "We have won elections in Telangana, Himachal Pradesh. We have been raising issues as far as the fairness of elections in India is concerned. I have done press conferences in India where we have clearly shown without a shadow of a doubt that we won the Haryana election and that we don't feel the Maharashtra elections were fair," he said.He claimed the party had evidence of victory in Haryana and sought answers from the Election Commission over irregularities, including duplicate entries on voter lists, but received no response.

Summing up the party's position, Gandhi added, "We fundamentally believe that there is a problem with the electoral machinery in India," arguing that procedural flaws and alleged irregularities undermined public trust in results and damaged the credibility of the system.

Rahul Gandhi criticises PM Modi’s economic vision

During the Berlin interaction, Gandhi also challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi's economic approach. Gandhi said the BJP and RSS had only stretched policies associated with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh without offering a fresh direction, and claimed this model had reached a limit where it struggled to deliver further gains.

While acknowledging that "A number of people in India support PM Modi. A lot of do not agree with his ideology and the vision of India that he has. We think the vision will fail and it has tremendous problems. It will create massive tensions in pic.twitter.com/WXHve6aWS1— ANI (@ANI) December 22, 2025" Gandhi argued that the same vision risked deep divisions. Gandhi expanded on this by saying, "We think the vision will fail and it has tremendous problems. It will create massive tensions in India and make Indian people fight with each other. We will fight it. It is a clash between two visions in India."

Counter-attack from ruling party

The BJP dismissed Gandhi's Germany remarks and questioned their intent. On December 23, BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari asked whether a leader who wanted India to succeed would speak of failure and social conflict abroad, and linked Gandhi's narrative to foreign figures critical of the government.

In a post on X, Bhandari alleged that Gandhi and "ideological patron George Soros" wanted instability in India, and that Gandhi met what Bhandari termed "anti-India forces" during foreign visits. The BJP spokesperson shared a clip and wrote, "We think people will fight with each other, we think India will fail"

Bhandari then asked, "Can a man who loves Bharat want India to fail?" and claimed that those who "truly loves Bharat" would not speak in this manner. The post accused Gandhi of shifting from "Fighting Indian state, pic.twitter.com/1Fg6n2pgNT— Pradeep Bhandari( ) (@pradip103) December 23, 2025" to encouraging unrest, while insisting that the Congress under Gandhi opposed India's progress and democratic strength.