The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday mocked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his reported trip to Vietnam, posting an in-flight video that it claimed showed him heading to the Southeast Asian country even as protests over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls continued back home.
Posting the video on X, the BJP's official handle wrote: "Rahul Gandhi flying to Vietnam while India protests against vote theft. The so-called 'vote chori' crusader abandons his own agitation mid-way for a foreign holiday." The post quickly gathered traction, with BJP leaders and spokespersons amplifying the attack.
The video purportedly shows Gandhi seated in an aircraft cabin. The Congress has not immediately responded to the claim, and TMNN has not independently verified the authenticity or the date of the footage.
BJP national spokesperson R.P. Singh took a swipe at the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, saying, "Those who lecture the nation on 'vote chori' cannot even stay in the country for their own protest. The Congress's SIR agitation is a drama, and its lead actor has left for Vietnam."
BJP spokesperson Shazia Ilmi echoed the charge, calling the reported trip "yet another instance of Rahul Gandhi's misplaced priorities". "When the country is debating the integrity of electoral rolls, the Congress's tallest leader is holidaying abroad. It shows how seriously the Congress takes its own agitation," she said.
BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari also joined the attack, sharing the video and writing that Gandhi had "fled" to Vietnam. Bhandari has been among the most vocal BJP voices on the SIR issue, and his post framed the trip as evidence that the Congress's protests were unserious.
The row comes amid an intensifying political battle over the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The Congress, along with several opposition parties, has alleged large-scale irregularities in the revision exercise, coining the phrase "vote chori" to describe what it claims is the systematic deletion of genuine voters. The Election Commission has rejected the allegations.
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has been at the centre of the controversy, with opposition parties accusing the poll body of acting at the behest of the ruling party. The issue has also reached the Supreme Court, which is hearing petitions related to the revision exercise.
The BJP's decision to target Gandhi personally over the reported trip is part of a broader strategy of questioning the Congress's commitment to the causes it espouses. Party leaders have repeatedly accused Gandhi of disappearing on foreign trips at critical political moments, a charge the Congress has dismissed as a diversionary tactic.
For the Congress, the SIR issue has become a rallying point, with the party organising protests and public audits of voter lists in several states. A public audit in Delhi's Batla House area on Sunday reportedly found over a hundred voters wrongly marked as absent, shifted or dead, a finding the party has cited as vindication of its stand.
The alleged Vietnam trip, if confirmed, would hand the BJP a convenient counter-narrative: that the Congress's leadership is not invested enough in its own campaign to stay in the country while it unfolds. Whether the video is authentic and recent remains unverified, but the BJP's rapid amplification of the claim suggests the party sees political value in the episode regardless.
The episode also fits a familiar pattern in Indian politics, where the foreign travels of leaders become fodder for partisan attacks. Gandhi's trips abroad have been a recurring target for the BJP, which has often contrasted them with the Prime Minister's packed domestic schedule.
As the SIR battle plays out in courts, on the streets and on social media, the Vietnam video row is a reminder of how quickly the political discourse can shift from substantive questions about electoral rolls to personalised attacks on leaders. For now, the ball is in the Congress's court to respond to the BJP's claim, and to clarify the whereabouts of its most prominent leader at a moment when the party is asking the country to take its "vote chori" charge seriously.
(Reporting based on BJP's official X handle and statements by party spokespersons.)