BJP Holds ‘Save Democracy’ Rallies In Lucknow, Bareilly As Shivraj Singh Chouhan & JP Nadda Target Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav

Lucknow: The BJP took out ‘Save Democracy, Remove Anarchy’ rallies in Lucknow and Bareilly on Tuesday, mobilising thousands of party workers and supporters against the Opposition's allegations of irregularities in the electoral process and its criticism of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

More than 50,000 party workers and supporters reportedly participated in the rallies in the two cities, carrying BJP flags and placards bearing the slogan ‘Save Democracy’.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan Targets Opposition Leaders

In Lucknow, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan joined the march and launched a sharp attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav.

"Congress and Rahul Gandhi are unable to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi politically, so they have started conspiring against him. Modi is the crown jewel of the country and a blessing from God," Chouhan said.

Urging party workers to raise slogans against the Opposition, he said their voices should be loud enough to make Rahul Gandhi nervous in Delhi.

Taking a dig at Akhilesh Yadav over his opposition to the SIR exercise, Chouhan asked whether a voter whose name appeared in two places should not have one of the duplicate entries deleted.

He also predicted electoral setbacks for the INDIA bloc, saying the alliance had suffered defeats in several states, from West Bengal to Rajasthan. "Akhilesh Babu, your turn will come in February," he said.

JP Nadda Leads BJP Rally In Bareilly

In Bareilly, BJP president and Union Health Minister JP Nadda, Union Minister Jayant Chaudhary and Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya led the rally, which was attended by thousands of party workers.

Addressing a gathering after the march, Nadda accused the Opposition of undermining the credibility of the Election Commission and electronic voting machines (EVMs).

He alleged that Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav questioned the electoral system whenever they lost elections but took credit for their political capabilities when they won.

"These are hit-and-run politicians. They throw stones and then run away. Their leader has just delivered a speech at Ramlila Maidan and will now leave for abroad," Nadda said, taking a swipe at the Congress leadership.

Nadda Defends Election Commission And Democracy

He asserted that India's democracy would be run by its citizens and not infiltrators, adding that people would reject those who stood in support of illegal immigrants.

Nadda said India was known as the mother of democracy and accused the INDIA bloc of attempting to erode public confidence in constitutional institutions, particularly the Election Commission.

BJP Defends Electoral Roll Revision Exercise

Defending the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, Nadda said the exercise had been conducted 12 times in the country, including 10 times under Congress governments and twice under the NDA.

Nadda said the Opposition was questioning the deletion of around 13 crore names from a list of 96 crore voters. He claimed that the deleted entries included three crore voters who were unavailable, 6.30 crore who had shifted, 1.02 crore duplicate entries and 2.80 crore deceased voters.

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Nadda Challenges Opposition Over EVM Allegations

On the EVM controversy, Nadda said the Election Commission had challenged political parties to demonstrate that the machines could be hacked, but Congress and Samajwadi Party leaders had not accepted the challenge.

He also referred to Rahul Gandhi's allegations of large-scale deletion of votes in Karnataka's Mahadevapura constituency, claiming that even after 450 days, the Congress leader had not submitted an affidavit to the Election Commission.