Now Reading: BJP jabs Rahul Gandhi as Congress draws blank in ballot-paper MLC polls
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BJP jabs Rahul Gandhi as Congress draws blank in ballot-paper MLC polls
BJP jabs Rahul Gandhi as Congress draws blank in ballot-paper MLC polls
The Story in Brief
BJP leader Sudhanshu Trivedi on Wednesday, 28 October 2026 attacked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after the Congress failed to win any of the four Karnataka Legislative Council seats contested on ballot papers. The BJP-JD(S) alliance swept all four seats. Trivedi said the results proved the Congress had ‘failed to make its presence felt’ in the ballot-paper elections and called Gandhi a ‘big-time loser’, adding that the Congress should ‘give up your habit of avoiding hard work, and the slogan of vote theft will automatically disappear’.
The remarks came amid Gandhi's repeated allegations of irregularities against the Election Commission and its use of EVMs. BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari also noted that 28 MLC elections were held on ballot papers yet Congress under Gandhi won zero seats. Congress leader Priyank Kharge responded by saying the SIR process was ‘being used to favour the ruling party’ in Karnataka. Counting was still under way for some Legislative Council seats across states.
Update, 28 October 2026: Economic Times reports the same BJP press conference, with Trivedi arguing that the Congress’s zero-seat tally in ballot-paper MLC elections ‘shattered’ its allegations against EVMs. The outlet quotes Trivedi saying Congress lacks the ability to win public support in any election method. Congress leader Priyank Kharge separately questioned the SIR process in Karnataka.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The three outlets all report the same BJP press conference, but their framing differs in emphasis. Times of India leads with the BJP’s ‘failed to make its presence felt’ jibe and quotes Trivedi’s full rebuttal of the Congress EVM argument, while Times Now opens with the sharper ‘ballot or EVMs, Rahul Gandhi is zero’ line and includes Pradeep Bhandari’s X post taunting Congress’s zero-seat tally from ballot-paper MLC polls. Economic Times is the most economical, sticking to Trivedi’s core argument that the results ‘shattered’ the Congress’s allegations. The coverage is uniform in substance, all three report the same party statements and the same Karnataka sweep, but Times Now’s headline and Bhandari’s post inject a more sensational tone, while the other two stay closer to straight conference reporting.
Coverage: 3 sources, 2 neutral, 1 sensationalist
Sources (3): timesofindia.indiatimes.com (neutral report), timesnownews.com (sensationalist), economictimes.indiatimes.com (neutral report)
This brief was synthesised by AI from the 3 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Methodology and corrections.
