New Delhi: Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday lashed out at the BJP, claiming that one-sixth of its 240 MLAs were won through stolen votes.In X’s social media post, Rahul accused the BJP of pocketing institutions.“Sometimes votes are stolen to a few seats and sometimes to the entire government. About one-sixth of the 240 BJP MPs in the Lok Sabha won through stolen votes. It is not difficult to spot them – should we call them ‘infiltrators’ in the BJP lingo? What about Haryana? There, the entire government is an infiltrator,” Rahul said.“Those institutions in their pocket, those institutions that tamper with voter rolls and electoral processes — those institutions themselves are ‘remotely controlled’. Their real fears are facts. Because if there were fair elections, they wouldn’t even win 140 seats today,” he added.Rahul Gandhi’s reference to a “stolen mandate” seemed to echo the allegation leveled by Mamata Banerjee, who claimed that “more than 100 seats were stolen” in the state, a charge dismissed by the BJP.Earlier, Mamata Banerjee claimed that the BJP had “plundered” over 100 seats and termed the Election Commission as a “BJP’s commission”, calling the victory “immoral” and “illegal”.A day earlier, Rahul warned party colleagues and other opposition leaders not to celebrate the Trinamool Congress’ defeat in West Bengal and viewed the election results as a greater threat to Indian democracy.Without taking names, Rahul Gandhi said: “Some in the Congress and others are gloating over the TMC’s failure. They need to understand this clearly: stealing the mandate of Assam and Bengal is a big step forward for the BJP in its mission to destroy democracy in India.”He urged political parties to rise above electoral competition, adding, “Put petty politics aside. This is not about one party or the other. This is about India.”

