Rahnuma:‘Aryabhata invented zero specifically for Congress’: Shivraj Chouhan takes jibe at Rahul Gandhi over MLC polls Council polls Bhopal, Oct 28 (IANS) Senior BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday took a swipe at the Congress over its performance in Legislative Council elections across four states, mocking its leadership and policies after the party failed to win any of the 12 seats it contested. “Sometimes it seems that Aryabhata invented zero specifically for the Congress. Its leadership is zero, its policies are zero, and its results are zero,” Chouhan wrote on X in a sarcastic attack on the opposition party.
The former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister’s remarks came after elections were held for 28 Legislative Council seats across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Karnataka using ballot papers. The Congress failed to win a single seat, including constituencies it had held previously. The results have given the BJP an opportunity to target the Congress over its allegations concerning the electoral process, particularly its criticism of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Madhya Pradesh BJP president Hemant Khandelwal also criticised the Congress, questioning whether it would now protest against ballot papers after losing elections conducted through different voting systems.
“First, the Congress lost elections while blaming EVMs, then it held SIR responsible, and now it has lost even in elections conducted through ballot papers,” Khandelwal said, asking the party to consider changing its leadership instead of blaming the electoral process. The Congress contested 12 of the 28 seats across the four states, including four constituencies it had won in the previous elections. Its biggest setback came in Karnataka, where it failed to secure any of the four seats despite being in power in the state. The BJP-Janata Dal (Secular) alliance swept all four seats in Karnataka, with the BJP retaining three constituencies and the JD(S) wresting the Bengaluru Teachers’ seat from the Congress
. In Bihar, the Congress contested five seats but failed to win any, while in Maharashtra it drew a blank in the three constituencies it contested. The party did not field candidates in the 11 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh. The Legislative Council elections involved graduates’ and teachers’ constituencies, which have a limited electorate compared with general elections. The results, however, have triggered a fresh political attack by the BJP on the Congress over its electoral strategy and repeated allegations about the voting system. –IANS pd/dan
