Sudhanshu Trivedi hits back at Rahul Gandhi over SIR, voter list claims

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has once again targeted the Election Commission and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. At a press conference on Thursday, Gandhi demanded that Gyanesh Kumar resign. He said the credibility of the voter list had fallen, and raised serious questions about the entire election process.

The BJP has now hit back sharply at Rahul Gandhi's allegations. The party's national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi called his own press conference to launch a direct attack on Gandhi.

Trivedi said Rahul Gandhi had little political knowledge, and remarked sarcastically that Gandhi could not even win his own seat on his own. On the issue of an anti-incumbency wave that Gandhi had raised, Trivedi also posed questions citing the Congress party's electoral history.

Responding to Gandhi's claims, Trivedi also raised the issue of alleged differences within the Election Commission. He asked whether Rahul Gandhi had solid evidence to claim that there had been differences in the Election Commission's decisions. The Commission has already said that its decisions, including on the SIR, were unanimous at the final stage.

At his press conference on Thursday, Rahul Gandhi had demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Questioning the credibility of the election process, he had also made serious allegations concerning the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and some state assembly elections. He had also raised the issue of an anti-incumbency wave in the country again. The Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, process has kept the political atmosphere heated for some time now, with the opposition repeatedly questioning the Commission's authority.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, ruling in May 2026 on the SIR process in Bihar, had held that the Election Commission has the authority to conduct a special revision of the voter list under Article 324 of the Constitution and provisions of the Representation of the People Act. With Rahul Gandhi's allegations and the BJP's counterattack, the Election Commission, the SIR and the voter list have once again become a political flashpoint. Attention now turns to how the Election Commission responds to these charges and counter-charges.