Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday, 28 October launched a sharp attack on the Indian National Congress after the opposition party failed to win a single seat in Legislative Council (MLC) elections held across four states — drawing a blank in all 12 constituencies it contested.

The Jibe That Went Viral

Chouhan, the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and senior Union minister, posted a pointed remark on X: 'Sometimes it seems that Aryabhata invented zero specifically for the Congress. Its leadership is zero, its policies are zero, and its results are zero.' The post drew wide attention, framing the Congress's performance as a systemic failure rather than a one-off electoral loss.

What the MLC Results Show

Elections were held for 28 Legislative Council seats across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, and Karnataka using ballot papers. The Congress contested 12 of those seats, including four it had previously held, and lost all of them. In Karnataka — where the Congress is in power — the party failed to secure any of the four seats it contested. The BJP–Janata Dal (Secular) alliance swept all four Karnataka seats, with BJP retaining three constituencies and JD(S) wresting the Bengaluru Teachers' seat from the Congress. In Bihar, the Congress lost all five seats it contested, and in Maharashtra it drew a blank across three constituencies. It fielded no candidates in Uttar Pradesh's 11 seats.

BJP Presses the Advantage

Madhya Pradesh BJP president Hemant Khandelwal escalated the critique, pointing out that the Congress had blamed Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for previous losses, then attributed defeats to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls — and has now lost even in elections conducted through traditional ballot papers. 'First, the Congress lost elections while blaming EVMs, then it held SIR responsible, and now it has lost even in elections conducted through ballot papers,' Khandelwal said, urging the party to reconsider its leadership rather than its narrative about the voting system.

Why These Polls Matter Beyond Their Scale

Legislative Council elections involving graduates' and teachers' constituencies carry a limited electorate and rarely generate national headlines on their own. However, the Congress's failure to retain seats it previously held — including in a state where it governs — gives the BJP a potent line of attack on the opposition's broader credibility and its recurring claims about electoral malpractice. This comes amid an already fraught political environment heading into upcoming state assembly cycles. Notably, the clean sweep by the BJP-JD(S) alliance in Karnataka is particularly significant, as it chips away at the Congress's narrative of southern dominance. The results are unlikely to shift the national balance of power, but they hand the BJP a fresh rhetorical weapon ahead of the next round of elections.