BJP Calls Bypoll Results Democracy's Reply To Mob Rule And Turns On Rahul Gandhi
The BJP used a day of by-election counting on Friday to mount a sustained attack on Rahul Gandhi, with its national general secretary Smriti Irani describing the results as democracy's reply to what she called mob rule
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Irani listed the seats where the BJP was ahead. In West Bengal the party was leading in Nandigram, which she described as having once been a symbol of left-wing violence and of resistance to industrial development, and in Rejinagar, where she said close to 71 per cent of voters belong to minority communities. In Assam the party was leading in the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat. In Puducherry she welcomed the victory of a candidate of the National Democratic Alliance.
Counting was still under way as she spoke. At that stage the BJP led Nandigram by close to 70,000 votes, Rejinagar by about 35,000 and Nagaon by more than 26,000. In Puducherry the AINRC, an alliance partner, held an unassailable lead at Thattanchavady.
She also cited the election of BJP members to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh as a cause for celebration. All ten of the state's seats were in fact filled without a contest, eight going to the BJP and two to the Samajwadi Party, with every candidate elected unopposed.
Irani acknowledged that parties aligned with the Congress were winning in one or two seats, and twice invited the Congress to comment on Tamil Nadu. There, both by-elections were being led by the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, the party of the actor Vijay, which formed the state government in May and which has since joined the opposition INDIA bloc.
Most of the press conference concerned Rahul Gandhi, whom she referred to as the Congress's former national president.
She asked why he had said nothing about allegations against a Congress MP who teaches at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Hours earlier the university dismissed a Lok Sabha member from Manipur from his post with immediate effect, following an inquiry by its internal complaints committee.
Irani said Rahul Gandhi had spoken of smashing patriarchy while remaining silent on the case, and said it was the legal framework rather than the Gandhi family that protected the safety and rights of Indian women.
LIVE: Smt. @smritiirani addresses a press conference at BJP headquarters in New Delhi. https://t.co/On6BYhDWRU
— BJP (@BJP4India) October 9, 2026
She also referred to video of Rahul Gandhi during this week's protests which she said showed him in a physical altercation with a woman police officer. Some BJP spokesmen circulated such a video earlier in the week, alleging that Rahul Gandhi tried to shove an officer and that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra struck another with her elbow. The allegations have not been independently substantiated.
Delhi Police have registered a case against both leaders over the protests. Irani returned repeatedly to a remark Rahul Gandhi made on 15 January 2025, at the opening of the Congress's new headquarters in Delhi, when he said the party was fighting the BJP, the RSS and the Indian state itself.
Irani said the Indian state meant the constitutional arrangements that sustain democracy, and that no leader in India's political history had previously declared an attack on it. The remark caused a row at the time, drew criticism from senior BJP figures and led to a police complaint in Odisha.
She declined to comment on the President, saying it was the President's prerogative to meet any political party and that she did not wish to breach constitutional propriety. The opposition has said it intends to meet President Droupadi Murmu. She also declined to comment on the courts, and on the conduct of the Delhi Police, saying journalists should put those questions to the force directly and that her own expectation as a citizen was that it keep ordinary people safe.
On policy, she said Rahul Gandhi had consistently opposed the Make in India programme and questioned a leadership that resisted expanding the country's manufacturing capacity.