New Delhi, Sept. 18 -- Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday described the reported arrest of Congress candidate Milan Pradhan, who is contesting the Nandigram Assembly by-election in West Bengal, as an act of "political vendetta" and an attack on democracy.
In a strongly worded post on social media platform X, Gandhi alleged that Pradhan's arrest was not a coincidence but part of a deliberate political strategy, accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of seeking to undermine the electoral process rather than face a fair contest.
Gandhi said the BJP had no faith in free and fair elections and was attempting to retain power through what he described as "vote theft, government theft and party theft...