Dubbing him a “traitor” for his remarks, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra accused him of venting his frustration over ED action in the National Herald case on the poll body.”You are venting the ire over the Enforcement Directorate (action in the National Herald case) on the Election Commission. Nothing will happen by doing so,” Patra said.”The ED will not spare you because agencies work on the basis of facts and the National Herald matter is an open-and-shut case. You will not be spared. You and your mother will be caught with the proceeds of crime and sent to jail,” he said at a press conference at the BJP headquarters.Both Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi will go behind bars in connection with the case, he asserted.”You are a traitor, not just because you insult Indian institutions and Indian democracy on foreign soil but also because you and your mother embezzled crores of rupees of the country in the National Herald case. You and your mother will not be able to get away with this,” Patra said.The Enforcement Directorate (ED) recently filed a chargesheet against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and others before a special court in New Delhi in the National Herald case, accusing them of allegedly laundering Rs 988 crore.The prosecution complaint filed on April 9, under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), named Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi as accused no 1 and 2, respectively.Slamming Gandhi’s questioning of the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance’s sweeping victory in the Maharashtra Assembly polls, Patra asked, “In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won 240 seats and the Congress 99. The Congress was then calling the results its victory and the BJP’s defeat. Was the EC compromised then?”Though Rahul Gandhi is the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, he is actually a “leader with no position” in his own party and in the eyes of the country’s people, Patra said.”With their votes, people are saying that he is a leader with no position. He is incapable and politically unfit, who always takes the crutches of false allegations to prove that he is a leader. What he has been doing in the US and other countries are the result of his frustration with his failures,” he said.Rahul Gandhi should contest elections from some other country if he is not able to do politics in India, he added.Attacking Gandhi over the remarks, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that the Congress leader “does not miss sharing hateful thoughts about India and its democratic systems whenever he is abroad.””Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi has once again questioned the credibility of the Election Commission from a foreign land. It is very unfortunate that whenever Rahul Gandhi is abroad, he does not miss sharing his hateful thoughts towards India and India’s democratic systems,” he wrote on X.”In fact, the ‘crown prince’ of the ‘royal’ family which has been in power for decades, hates the recognition India’s glorious democratic traditions are getting at the global level. This is the reason why he does not miss any opportunity to insult the country and its citizens,” the BJP leader said.Meanwhile, Congress defended its former chief statements and asserted that nowadays it doesn’t matter from which part of the world one speaks.Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera noted the opposition party has expressed doubts about the ECI’s functioning and the poll panel should reply to them.”We have doubts about the ECI. It is not humanly possible to have 10 to 13 percentage points rise in voting in the last hour of polling,’ he contended.”Let the ECI reply (to issues raised by Congress)… why is the BJP responding? We have learnt from Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi to speak about domestic political issues on foreign soil,” he said, responding to a question regarding the BJP’s response to gandhi’s remarks. (With inputs from PTI)
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