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BJP attacks Congress over reports suggesting that the United States, through its foreign aid agency USAID, allocated $21 million to enhance voter turnout in India in 2012.
BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi | File Image/PTI
Bharatiya Janata Party Tuesday launched a blistering attack against the Congress after reports emerged that the United States, through its foreign aid agency USAID, allocated $21 million to enhance voter turnout in India in 2012.
The US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) declared its latest move to reduce expenditures by cancelling millions of dollars in funding for various countries, including the $21 million allocated for enhancing “voter turnout in India.”
BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi, while addressing a press conference, asked the Congress party about the powers that received foreign grants to “influence” and “trouble” the electoral process of India.
“We want to ask the Congress clearly… who are these powers that seem to be getting economic grants for influencing and creating trouble in the election process in India,” the BJP leader said.
VIDEO | “We want to ask the Congress clearly… who are these powers that seem to be getting economic grant for influencing and creating trouble in the election process in India. It is evident that views of (George) Soros, Uncle Sam (Pitroda) are similar. Whatever Sam Pitroda has… pic.twitter.com/ZHmGqSfQtg— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 17, 2025
He further alleged that an organisation called ‘The International Foundation for Electoral Systems’ signed an agreement in 2011 with an Indian body– India International Institute of Election Management, which is an organisation associated with the Election Commission.
“And the support came from an organisation called Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening which has links with George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, which invested half a billion dollars in India through USAID etc and since then 3.5 lakh dollars were coming to India every year,” said Trivedi.
Earlier, the BJP picked up an MOU signed between IFES and the ECI and alleged that then Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi was involved with this foreign funding row.
“Views of (George) Soros and Uncle Sam (Pitroda) are similar. Whatever Sam Pitroda has said… it appears that the lyrics are by Sam Pitroda and the music is composed by Soros and Congress, INDI alliance people are playing the symphony,” the BJP MP added.
The DOGE authorities said that the US has decided to slash a $21 million program designed to increase voter turnout in India and a $29 million initiative aimed at strengthening Bangladesh’s political landscape.
“US taxpayer dollars were going to be spent on the following items, all of which have been cancelled,” the Musk-led department announced on X.
BJP Alleges ‘External Interference’
Soon after the announcement was made by DOGE, the BJP responded to the development, alleging “external interference in India’s electoral process,” a charge the party has made repeatedly over the past months, linking billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros.
The party further asked: “Who gains from this? Not the ruling party for sure!”
“Once again, it is Soros, a known associate of Congress and the Gandhis, whose shadow looms over our electoral process,” BJP’s Amit Malviya alleged in an earlier X post, in which he also accused the EC, then led by SY Quraishi, of signing a deal that to hand over “entire Election Commission to foreign operators”.
In response, Quraishi said, “The report in a section of Media about an MoU by ECI in 2012 when I was CEC, for funding of certain million dollars by a US agency for raising voter turnout in India, does not have an iota of fact.”
Quraishi served as the chief of the poll panel from July 2010 to June 2012.
- Location :
Delhi, India, India
