The BJP hit back at Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi over his remarks against the Chief Election Commissioner at a press conference Thursday, with party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi defending the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process as legally sound and its decision-making as based on majority consensus.Trivedi was responding to the Congress leader’s remarks following The Indian Express report published on Wednesday that two Election Commissioners in the three-member Election Commission of India (ECI) objected on record 14 times in 10 months to steps taken by the ECI under Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar — from keeping them in the dark to adding new voters and deleting names.AdvertisementTrivedi also questioned The Indian Express report, saying it did not have “even an off-record response from the Election Commissioners”.Also Read | ‘Gyanesh Kumar must turn approver’: Rahul Gandhi on Express investigation“Does the news report have any quote from the Election Commission? Yes or no? If not, on what basis is someone saying that the Election Commissioner said this? With regard to any news report, I say this while respecting the freedom of the press, when it comes to any news report, the person concerned is duly questioned and their statement taken. Is that statement quoted? No. Do you have even a single report stating that decisions were not unanimous? No,” he said.“Is there even a single press conference where all three (Election) Commissioners were not present? No. So what is the basis of this? I want to ask the Congress party a direct question: a report in which there is no quote from an Election Commissioner, even off-record, is mentioned, what is its basis?” he asked.AdvertisementOn September 21, two days before the report was published, The Indian Express sent a questionnaire to the ECI on the issues flagged by the two Election Commissioners, asking what was done to address their concerns. The two ECs were also sent emails the same day, asking whether their concerns were addressed. The emails were followed up by phone calls on Monday and Tuesday. There was no response to any of these.Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Trivedi also addressed Gandhi’s questions on what he said was the BJP’s series of electoral wins despite anti-incumbency being “an established truth” in the country — a phenomenon, Gandhi said, has persisted since the BJP came to power.Trivedi countered that anti-incumbency had been “very consistent and strong against the Congress” itself “after Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi entered the political arena”.“After Sonia Gandhi entered politics in December 1997, the Congress repeated its government in Madhya Pradesh once, in 1998, but has not repeated its government in any state since then. In Kerala, governments used to be repeated every time, but on the previous occasion, the Congress was expected to return instead of the Communist Party, which did not happen because Rahul Gandhi had set foot there,” he said.Asserting that “anti-incumbency is, in reality, directed against the Congress party and the Gandhi family, who have held power in the party for 100 years”, he contended that this has now “become so strong that they cannot even win their own seats without relying on the support of allied parties”.For the past 25 years, the Congress has been winning in Rae Bareli and Amethi with the support of the SP while Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi won in Wayanad, “where 60-65% of the population is Muslim”, with the support of the Indian Union Muslim League, he said.Express Investigation | 8 emails in 7 days, but valid Goa voters still left out: EC’s flawed system“The Congress has never returned to power in Tamil Nadu since 1967, a time when the BJP did not even exist. Congress has not returned to power in Bengal since 1977; the Communists ruled there for 34 years from 1977 to 2011. Rahul Gandhi neither sees this nor understands it,” he said.“There was a time when the Congress held power for long periods, an era before voter ID cards, characterised by booth capturing, the looting of ballot boxes and gunfire. In states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, hardly any election went without people being killed or injured. Back then, anti-incumbency did not work against the Congress. Since elections have become transparent, Central paramilitary forces are deployed instead of local police forces, live CCTV footage comes… since then, they (the Congress) have not been able to come back to power,” he said.Defending the ECI, Trivedi said section 21(3) of the Representation of People Act 1950 authorises the Commission to conduct an SIR as per its convenience. On changes to Form 6 for new voters, he said it had already been clarified that no changes had been made.you may likeALSO READ | Goa staff sent 8 emails in 7 days, but EC shut out valid voters“Something full of such stupidity only the Congress can say because India’s first electoral roll was made in 1952, when the voting age was 21; till 1974, the reference regarding mother and father was not required because whoever was being made a first-time voter till 1973 could not have had parents since most of them must have belonged to before 1952,” he said.“We want to ask one more thing: Election Commissioners are also appointed in the states. I challenge the Congress and Opposition parties to tell us: in how many states is the Leader of the Opposition involved in the selection process for the Election Commissioner? In how many states is the Chief Justice of the state involved? Here, the LoP is involved (in the selection of ECs),” he said.Trivedi also said that the Supreme Court had upheld all the powers of the ECI with regard to the SIR process. “…there are three Election Commissioners…if any two have differing views on something, that decision cannot take place because it can only happen with majority,” he said.