Talking to reporters, Sapkal said, “The Maharashtra assembly elections last year exposed this theft. What is democracy? It is its people, the right to vote given to them, and the principle of one person, one vote. The BJP robbed the entire electoral process by committing vote chori. This is their ploy to destroy democracy. A do-or-die situation now prevails in the country, and all opposition parties and citizens should oppose this tooth and nail.”

He claimed the ECI’s notice to Rahul Gandhi over his “vote chori” remark is like “a thief reprimanding a cop”.

Sapkal was speaking on the sidelines of a two-day workshop organised in Pune to provide orientation and training to newly appointed Congress functionaries in the state, in the presence of the party’s senior leadership.

The senior leader further dismissed the talk of Congress leaders joining the BJP as “propaganda”.

“The party’s base is built by its workers and strong leadership. The BJP is like a witch that feeds on Congress workers. In their bid for a ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’, they forget their party is filling up with former Congress members. If the chief minister looks at his cabinet, he will find more than half of the ministers are from the Congress,” he claimed.

The BJP boasts of leaders like PM Narendra Modi, but is poaching workers from other parties, he alleged.

“This shows your leadership is not capable enough. The poaching also proves BJP’s core leaders and workers have no future,” Sapkal claimed.

Senior Congress leaders Babasaheb Thorat, Vijay Vadettiwar, Satej Patil and Vishwajeet Kadam were present for the orientation workshop.

According to party officials, AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge is likely to address the workshop via video link.