What is the story about?
“Gyanesh nahi, Ganesh ji BJP ki madad kar rahe hain.” With this wordplay, BJP leader Sambit Patra on Tuesday took aim at Rahul Gandhi as the party mounted
a fresh defence of the Election Commission and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar amid the escalating row over Form 6 and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Patra accused the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha of making “four lies” about the Election Commission - accusing Rahul of alleging: 1) that Form 6 was changed illegally, 2) that it was changed unilaterally, 3) that the EC was trying to help the BJP and 4) that the exercise amounted to a “criminal assault on Indian democracy”. Patra's remarks came a day after the Supreme Court clarified during the hearing on EC-SIR controversy that the court had not approved any modification to Form 6.
Patra, however, sought to turn the Supreme Court proceedings into a counterattack on the Congress leader.
BJP's Form 6 Defence: "'Modification' Vs 'Attached Declaration' - Know The Difference"
On Rahul Gandhi's first two allegations, Patra relied heavily on the Election Commission's recent "fact-check" of the Congress leader's claims.
The ECI has maintained that Form 6 itself was not modified, but that a declaration was attached to it for the SIR exercise.
The poll panel also said that the June 2025 Bihar SIR order was approved unanimously by the Commission and was upheld by the Supreme Court in its May 2026 judgment.
'SC Recognised EC's Residual Authority': BJP
Patra cited the May 27 judgment to argue that the Supreme Court had recognised the EC's "residual authority" to prescribe a documentation framework suited to an intensive revision exercise.
The SC in its judgment said that Form 6, in its original form prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, may not be capable of literal application to an exercise of the nature of SIR and that the Commission retains a degree of residual authority to formulate an appropriate documentation framework. It also upheld the Bihar SIR exercise as legally tenable and proportionate.
However, after Monday’s hearing, the top court said it would examine the ECI’s records to ascertain what, if anything, was modified in Form 6 and who authorised the change.
'EC Trying To Help BJP?'
On Rahul Gandhi's third allegation, Patra questioned how Gyanesh Kumar could have been appointed to favour the BJP through elections that had already taken place.
Kumar became an Election Commissioner in March 2024 and took charge as Chief Election Commissioner in February 2025. During his tenure as Election Commissioner, he was part of the Commission when the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand were conducted.
Patra used this timeline to argue that the charge that Kumar's appointment was part of an effort to help the BJP did not hold. He added: 'BJP ki madad Gyanesh ji nahi, Ganesh ji kar rahe hain."
'Criminal Assault On Democracy'
Patra also hit back at Rahul Gandhi's fourth allegation that the EC's conduct amounted to a “criminal assault on Indian democracy”.
He pointed to the long history of Election Commissioners who went on to receive national honours or entered public life after retirement during Congress regimes. 'Was that an assault on Indian democracy too?" Patra asked pointedly.
BJP's 10-Question Counter To Rahul Gandhi
Patra then fired back 10 questions to Rahul Gandhi, asking:
"1) Shouldn’t the names of dead voters be removed from the electoral rolls?
2) Were Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also elected as MPs using “stolen” votes?
3) If SIR has been conducted 12 times in the past, were all those Congress governments and Election Commissions invalid?
4) Were Tamil Nadu and Himachal governments also elected through 'vote chori'?
5) Why were Opposition Booth Level Agents themselves raising complaints about voters and electoral rolls?
6) From 1993 onwards, the CEC was appointed by the government. Why was this system not questioned earlier?
7) Is the Election Commission acceptable when the Opposition wins, but blamed for undermining democracy when it loses?
8) Isn’t the Congress, through its allegations against the EC, actually creating anarchy?
9) Is Rahul Gandhi’s latest campaign against the Election Commission another attempt at a political “relaunch”?
10) Rajiv Gandhi introduced EVMs. Will the Congress now raise slogans against its own former Prime Minister over EVMs?
The BJP's counterattack comes as the Congress and other Opposition parties intensify their campaign against the EC and demand Kumar's resignation. INDIA bloc MPs were set to march to the Election Commission's office in Delhi on Tuesday, with heavy security deployed around the protest route.
