Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Sunday, in a fresh attack on the Election Commission of India and the BJP, called the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral roll in Bihar, an “institutionalised way” of stealing votes. Addressing a press conference in Araria in Bihar during the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’, the Congress leader alleged a partnership between the ECI and the BJP.
“In Bihar, SIR is an institutionalised way for vote theft. Lakhs of voters’ names were deleted; the Opposition is complaining, but the BJP has not complained even once because there is a partnership between the Election Commission, the Election Commissioner and the BJP,” Rahul Gandhi claimed.
He said that the Opposition will not allow the BJP and the Election Commission to steal elections in Bihar.
“Yatra is successful and people are joining organically. It is clear that crores of people in Bihar believe in our claim of vote theft, which is why you can see this response. Election Commission’s work is to give the correct voter list, which they did not do in Maharashtra, Haryana and Karnataka” Gandhi said.
“Our pressure is to change the Election Commission’s behaviour. We will not allow this to happen in Bihar. You stole elections in Maharashtra and Haryana, and in Karnataka, we showed that there was a vote theft,” he said.
When asked about the allegations of ‘misguiding’ the public and tarnishing the image of the poll body, Rahul Gandhi took a jibe at the ECI for not sending an affidavit to Union Minister Anurag Thakur, when he alleged ‘vote theft’ in Opposition-ruled constituencies.
He said, “I kept data for Mahadevapura in front of the Election Commission. There have been no answers to those questions. I was addressing the press conference when the EC asked for the affidavit. A few days after that, Anurag Thakur did a similar press conference. I do not know who gave him the idea. But EC did not ask for an affidavit from him. We said the same thing.”
“The media knows who the Election Commission is standing with. If they were neutral, an affidavit would have been sent to Anurag Thakur as well,” he added. Earlier today, Congress MP Gandhi, along with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav, resumed their ‘Voter Adhikaar Yatra’ on its eighth day in the State’s Purnea district.
The two leaders rode motorcycles during the ‘Yatra’, which seeks to highlight alleged irregularities in the SIR exercise in the state. The 16-day ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’, covering 1,300 km across 20 districts, has been launched by the Opposition parties in protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, which they claim is an attempt at vote chori (vote theft). The march will conclude in Patna on September 1.
