‘Fight to protect democracy’: Opposition leaders react to detention during ‘vote chori’ protest

Gandhi said the Election Commission is silent as the truth is before the entire nation, after his charge that over one lakh votes in an assembly constituency in Karnataka were found to be fake in a research conducted by his party.

“They (EC) cannot talk as the truth is before the entire nation,” he said as he was being taken away in a bus by the police. “This fight is not political—it is a fight to protect democracy, the Constitution, and the right to ‘one person, one vote’,” he said. 

आज जब हम चुनाव आयोग से मिलने जा रहे थे, INDIA गठबंधन के सभी सांसदों को रोका गया और हिरासत में ले लिया गया।

वोट चोरी की सच्चाई अब देश के सामने है।

यह लड़ाई राजनीतिक नहीं – यह लोकतंत्र, संविधान और ‘एक व्यक्ति, एक वोट’ के अधिकार की रक्षा की लड़ाई है।

एकजुट विपक्ष और देश का हर… pic.twitter.com/SutmUirCP8

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 11, 2025

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said the protest against “vote chori” and SIR is a fight to protect people’s right to vote and a struggle to save democracy. In a post on X, he said, “BJP’s cowardly dictatorship will not work. This is a fight to protect people’s right to vote. This is a struggle to save democracy. The allies of the INDIA coalition will surely expose this BJP conspiracy to shred the Constitution.”

भाजपा की कायराना तानाशाही नहीं चलेगी !

ये जनता के वोट के अधिकार को बचाने की लड़ाई है।

ये लोकतंत्र को बचाने का संघर्ष है।

INDIA गठबंधन के साथी संविधान की धज्जियां उड़ाने वाली इस भाजपाई साज़िश को बेनक़ाब करके ही रहेंगे। #VoteChori pic.twitter.com/9tk4bYhkvr

— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) August 11, 2025

Democracy was being “assaulted and murdered right outside Parliament,” alleged Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh. He told PTI that Opposition MPs wanted to take out a peaceful march to the EC office as a mark of protest against the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls, but were stopped by the police. “We had already written to the EC that all MPs collectively wanted to hand over a memorandum to the EC,” he said. “Chunav Aayog is Chunav Aayog, it cannot be churao aayog,” Ramesh told PTI.

Here is our original request to the ECI. It is for the Opposition MPs to collectively hand over a memoradum and NOT for just a delegation pic.twitter.com/27tJKv6DJT

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) August 11, 2025

Congress MP KC Venugopal on Monday posted on X saying, “This is nothing but a desperate attempt to silence the Opposition on this burning issue of saving democracy from mass rigging. Such intimidation will not work for us, and we will continue to fight for the people’s inalienable right to vote.” 

We were holding a peaceful march to the ECI office, but the police has detained all of us, including INC President Sh. Mallikarjun @kharge ji, LOP Sh. @RahulGandhi ji and hundreds of INDIA bloc leaders.

This is nothing but a desperate attempt to silence the opposition on this… pic.twitter.com/PAXde1bf5h

— K C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) August 11, 2025

Wearing white caps with a red cross on the words ‘SIR’ and ‘vote chori’, the protesting MPs started their march from Parliament’s Makar Dwar raising slogans against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar and ‘vote chori’ while carrying placards and banners.