PM Modi mocks Congress zero tally in MLC polls across 4 states
Synopsis
PM Modi's one-line question — 'Guess how many seats Congress won?' — cut to the heart of the Opposition's EVM narrative. With Congress drawing a blank in ballot-paper-based MLC polls across four major states, the BJP now has its most potent counter-argument ahead of the INDIA Bloc's 1 November Ramlila Maidan rally.
Key Takeaways
PM Narendra Modi mocked Congress on 28 October 2026 via a post on X over its performance in MLC elections across 4 states .
Congress drew a blank in 3 states — Uttar Pradesh , Bihar , and Karnataka — and reportedly remained out of contention in Maharashtra too.
Elections were conducted using ballot papers , directly undermining the Congress-led Opposition's EVM manipulation narrative.
BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi and Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi both pressed the same point at separate appearances.
Samajwadi Party won the Agra Teacher's seat; RJD won the Patna Teachers' seat — suggesting the blank was Congress-specific, not a broader Opposition failure.
The INDIA Bloc is scheduled to hold a mega rally at Ramlila Maidan on 1 November against alleged electoral irregularities.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, 28 October 2026, took a pointed swipe at the Indian National Congress over its near-total absence from the results of Legislative Council (MLC) elections held across four states — Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, and Karnataka — elections conducted using ballot papers, not Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). The Congress drew a blank in three states and reportedly remained out of contention in Maharashtra, where counting for five seats was still underway.
Modi's X Post Lands the Jab
In a post on social media platform X, Prime Minister Modi wrote: 'MLC elections in 28 seats across 4 big states — Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and Karnataka.' He followed it with a rhetorical question: 'Elections held using ballot papers. Guess how many seats Congress won?' The remark was widely read as a direct counter to the Opposition's sustained campaign alleging electoral manipulation through EVMs.
BJP Presses the Point at Press Conference
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Sudhanshu Trivedi, addressing a press conference, said: 'Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party, who have created a storm of false claims about India's electoral process, have seen their aspirations for anarchy shattered by the results of the MLC elections...the Congress party has so far remained at zero. It is now almost clear that the Congress party has failed to make its presence felt in these elections.' Trivedi further added: 'These elections were conducted using ballot boxes and ballot papers, yet the Congress failed to establish its presence.'
Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi echoed the sentiment, saying: 'Whether it is ballot paper or the Electronic Voting Machines, the outcome for the Congress party remains the same.'
Backdrop: Opposition's EVM Controversy and Ramlila Rally
The BJP's offensive comes amid a charged political atmosphere. The Opposition INDIA Bloc has been demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, citing alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The bloc has also announced a mega rally at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan on 1 November against what it calls 'vote theft', a plan that has drawn protests from the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), trader associations, and sections of the Sikh community, who have flagged the date's association with the 1984 riots.
Notably, the Congress's performance in ballot-paper-based elections hands the ruling coalition a ready-made rebuttal to EVM-fraud allegations — an argument the BJP is pressing aggressively ahead of the Ramlila rally.
MLC Results: Who Actually Won
While Congress was shut out, other Opposition parties did manage wins. The Samajwadi Party (SP) emerged victorious in the Agra Teacher's seat in Uttar Pradesh, and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) won the Patna Teachers' constituency in the biennial elections to the Bihar Legislative Council. The results suggest the Opposition's electoral problem, at least in these contests, was a Congress-specific one rather than a broader coalition failure.
What Comes Next
With the Ramlila Maidan rally scheduled for 1 November, the BJP's messaging around the MLC results is likely to intensify. The Congress, for its part, faces pressure to explain the electoral blank even as it continues to anchor the INDIA Bloc's anti-EVM narrative. How the party responds — and whether it recalibrates its electoral strategy before the next round of state polls — will be closely watched.
Point of View
Low-cost counter-punch to the Opposition's EVM narrative — and it did not need to manufacture it. A Congress zero-tally in ballot-paper elections is the argument the ruling coalition could not have scripted better. What mainstream coverage underplays is that the MLC results are structurally narrow contests — teacher and graduate constituencies with tiny, identifiable electorates — not a proxy for mass public sentiment. The BJP's extrapolation to general elections is rhetorically effective but analytically thin. The deeper story is whether Congress, rather than recalibrating its ground organisation, will double down on institutional grievance politics heading into the next election cycle — a bet that is visibly not converting into votes.
NationPress
28 Oct 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did PM Modi mock Congress over the MLC election results?
PM Modi mocked Congress because the party won zero seats in Legislative Council elections held across Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, and Karnataka — polls conducted using ballot papers rather than EVMs. The jibe was directed at the Opposition's sustained campaign alleging that EVMs are rigged in the BJP's favour.
What are MLC elections and how were they conducted?
MLC elections are biennial polls to state Legislative Councils, India's upper houses at the state level. The recent elections in UP, Maharashtra, Bihar, and Karnataka were conducted using ballot papers — not Electronic Voting Machines — making them significant in the context of the Opposition's EVM controversy.
Which parties won in the MLC elections?
The Samajwadi Party won the Agra Teacher's seat in Uttar Pradesh, and the Rashtriya Janata Dal won the Patna Teachers' constituency in Bihar. Congress reportedly failed to win any seat across the four states.
What is the INDIA Bloc's Ramlila Maidan rally about?
The INDIA Bloc has announced a mass rally at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan on 1 November 2026 to protest alleged vote theft and electoral irregularities, including demands for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The NDA, trader bodies, and sections of the Sikh community have opposed the date due to its association with the 1984 riots.
How has the BJP responded to Congress's EVM fraud allegations?
The BJP has used Congress's blank showing in ballot-paper-based MLC elections as direct evidence against the EVM-fraud narrative. BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi and Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi both argued that the results prove the Congress's electoral struggles are not caused by voting machine irregularities but by a lack of public support.
