Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan Sunday said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was making up an excuse for future defeats in the Bihar and West Bengal Assembly elections through his claims of irregularities in the 2024 Maharashtra elections.

Chouhan, who is in Telangana as part of a ministry programme, told The Indian Express: “He is already creating a pretext for losing the Bihar and West Bengal elections. He knows there is no basis to his claims. Nobody takes him seriously.”

He said: “How did the Congress come to power in Telangana? The government was formed with the same EVM. How did the Congress come into power in Karnataka?”