Before setting off on his 16-day, 1,300-km “Voter Adhikar Yatra (Voter Rights March)” from Sasaram in Bihar’s Rohtas district on Sunday, Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi targeted the Election Commission (EC), alleging that its “latest conspiracy” was to “steal the election” in Bihar through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
With Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, at a press conference in Delhi, asking the Congress leader to either submit his allegations in a sworn affidavit within a week or apologise to the nation, Gandhi asked why the poll panel chief had not demanded an affidavit from BJP leader Anurag Thakur. Last Wednesday, Thakur alleged irregularities in voter registration in several Lok Sabha seats held by Opposition leaders and accused them of “vote theft”.
“In the whole country, Assembly and Lok Sabha elections are being stolen … Their latest conspiracy is that through SIR in Bihar, by adding new voters and deleting voters, they steal the election. All of us are here to say that we will not let them steal this election. And the people of Bihar will not allow this theft. Because the poor and weak only have their votes,” said Gandhi, surrounded by his allies and facing a sea of placards and flags belonging to the Mahagathbandhan parties.
Hitting out at the poll panel, the LoP said, “This is not hidden anymore. The country didn’t know how theft was done. But now, after we did the press conference, we made it clear how the EC is stealing elections. We will not allow this theft. Wherever this theft is happening, whether in Bihar, Maharashtra, Assam, or Bengal, we will stop it. The NDA and Narendra Modi run the government with billionaires.”
“Wherever there are elections, they (BJP) win. In Maharashtra, all opinion polls said the INDIA bloc would win the elections in the state. During the Lok Sabha polls, our alliance won. Four months later, in the same state, the BJP alliance sweeps and wins elections. We did some inquiry and found that the EC magically gave birth to 1 crore voters between the Lok Sabha and the Assembly elections. Wherever these new voters came, the BJP alliance won,” he said.
Gandhi said the Congress complained to the poll body and “asked for videography, but they refused”.
“Then, we started an inquiry and found that in Karnataka’s one Assembly segment in a Lok Sabha seat, and went through all records … We found that in the Vidhan Sabha segment, more than 1 lakh votes were stolen. Because of these votes, the BJP won the Lok Sabha seat in Karnataka. We said this at a press conference and the EC asked me for an affidavit. They didn’t ask for an affidavit from anyone else. Some days ago, the BJP people did a press conference but no affidavit was sought from them,” he said.
Later in the day, after the yatra halted for the day in Aurangabad, Gandhi said, “Today, they (ECI) held a press conference. I ask them if you made a law on CCTVs. Then, why was it changed by the government? I ask this. Do you know that no case can be lodged against the Election Commissioners? Do you know that no court can file a case against Election Commissioners? Do you know when this law was made? In 2023. Why was it made in 2023? Because Narendra Modi and Amit Shah want no one to take any action against the Election Commission. Because the EC is helping them in stealing votes.”
“EC asks me to submit an affidavit, but when Anurag Thakur says the same things that I have said, it does not ask for an affidavit from him,” Gandhi said.
Earlier in Sasaram, even as the Congress leader spoke, Opposition workers at the venue frequently broke into bouts of sloganeering to target the poll panel over “vote chori (vote theft)”. The ground, which saw thousands in attendance, was awash with different shades of green (RJD flag and the tricolour of the Congress flag) and red (that of the Left and the Vikassheel Insaan Party). While there were loud cheers for all the speakers, from Gandhi to RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, the loudest were reserved for RJD president and former CM Lalu Prasad, whom Gandhi thanked for coming despite doctors advising him not to make the trip.
Tejashwi Yadav told the crowd that Prime Minister Modi should not underestimate the people of Bihar. “We may be poor. But we are very sharp, and we will not bow … The Constitution given to us by Dr Ambedkar gave us the right to vote irrespective of how rich or poor. But the BJP people are getting the EC to do its work. They are stealing your votes. People have been declared dead by the EC … This is not vote chori but robbery.”
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused the EC of acting like an “agent” of the “dangerous” Modi government that, he alleged, poses a “threat” to the right to vote.
Among the other senior Mahagathbandhan leaders who attended the rally were Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, VIP chief Mukesh Sahni, CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, and CPI’s Sandosh Kumar P.
The march, modelled on Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra and Bharat Jodo Nyay yatras, will pass through 23 districts, covering 50 Assembly segments in 29 Lok Sabha constituencies across several regions of the state before culminating in a mega public meeting in Patna on September 1. On Monday, those on the march are scheduled to travel through Kutumba, Aurangabad, and Deo in Aurangabad district and Guraru in Gaya district.
