BJP MP Anurag Thakur speaks in the Lok Sabha during the budget session
BJP MP Anurag Thakur today questioned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and his party's track record in elections, after the Congress could not win a single seat in Delhi again. The BJP leader dialled up the hurt with a swipe over "high" income tax during the years when the Congress was in power in the Centre.
Inside parliament, holding a small poster where it's written there is "zero tax" till Rs 12 lakh income, Mr Thakur said the Congress may feel bad about this "zero", but the government is seeing happiness in crores of common people.
"Rahul ji, check the zero," Mr Thakur said, alluding to an internet meme of Mr Gandhi that shows a doctored photo of the Congress leader as a fuel station attendant asking a motorist to "check the zero" in the fuel meter.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced new income tax slabs in Budget 2025, which exempted income tax for salaried people earning up to Rs 12.75 lakh a year.
Yesterday, Mr Thakur called the Congress MP an "urban Naxal" after Mr Gandhi alleged a massive electorate expansion in Maharashtra ahead of the next assembly election.
In his swipe at the Congress in parliament today, Mr Thakur narrated a long list of Congress's defeats and asked how many seats the Congress won in some elections.
Other BJP leaders responded with "zero" each time Mr Thakur asked a question.
"If anyone has done the work of making this record of zeroes, then it is the Congress party under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi," Mr Thakur said in parliament today.
The Congress, which hoped for a revival in Delhi, could not bag even a single seat for a third time in a row. The party ruled Delhi for 15 years beginning 1998.
"I ask in front of all of you, in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, how many seats did the people of Delhi give to Congress? Zero. How many seats were given to Congress in the 2015 Vidhan Sabha? Zero. How many seats were given in the 2019 Lok Sabha? Zero. How many seats were given in the 2020 Vidhan Sabha? Zero. How many seats were given in the 2024 Lok Sabha? Zero. How many seats were given in the 2025 Vidhan Sabha? Zero," Mr Thakur said.
The BJP stormed back to power in the national capital after nearly three decades, winning close to 50 of Delhi's 70 seats, while AAP - which won 60-plus seats in the last two elections -- bagged 22.
