Day before 1st INDIA meet after poll expose, a Congress huddle sets agenda

The CWC resolution said recent reports about the Election Commission vindicate warnings by Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, about the “systematic subversion of India’s electoral process through Vote Chori”.

The CWC, the Congress’s highest decision-making body, resolved to demand the immediate resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner, suspension of the Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls in several states, restoration of over 13 lakh names struck off voter lists and the resignation of the Prime Minister and the Home Minister.

“The CWC is gravely alarmed by the mounting questions over the constitutionality of the SIR that has already wiped out 13 crore 30 lakh Indians from the electoral rolls. A process that shifts the burden onto citizens to prove their own eligibility, is executed in haste without transparent safeguards, and results in arbitrary mass disenfranchisement cannot be reconciled with the guarantee of equality under Article 14 or universal adult suffrage under Article 326. An exercise of doubtful constitutional validity cannot be allowed to decide who may vote in the world’s largest democracy,” the resolution read.

“Reportedly, two Election Commissioners raised 14 objections over ten months, citing ‘unauthorised’ and ‘illegal’ changes to Form 6 used in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), exposing a pattern of institutional overreach. The unprecedented concentration of control over electoral rolls in the hands of a few BJP-backed officials during the nationwide SIR serves as the last nail in the coffin of the ECI’s credibility,” it said.

The Election Commission has acknowledged these notes, but described them as part of the panel’s “decision-making process”. In its latest meeting, the Commission has sought to address several concerns raised by the two Election Commissioners. The ruling BJP, meanwhile, has fielded its prominent chief ministers to counter what it calls the Opposition’s “baseless allegations” against the poll panel and a “conspiracy to malign the country’s constitutional institutions”.

“Under the guidance of Shri Mallikarjun Kharge and the leadership of Shri Rahul Gandhi, Congress has already taken this fight to the people and to every available forum: the Voter Adhikar Yatra in Bihar; the nationwide Vote Chori campaign, following his press conferences exposing roll manipulation in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Haryana; the EAGLE group and its engagement with the ECI; written objections to procedural changes, legal challenges to the SIR; INDIA bloc protests in Parliament; and the march to the ECI. What began as one man’s solitary warning is now a national demand for transparency and accountability,” it added.

Briefing the media after the CWC meeting, Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal and senior party leader Jairam Ramesh said the two-and-a-half-hour meeting discussed key issues related to the Election Commission. The CWC, he said, congratulated Gandhi for taking up the “biggest issue of Indian democracy through Vote Chori campaign”.

The Congress leaders said Kumar is “just a tool” and demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Shah.

Members of the INDIA bloc are set to meet at Delhi’s Constitution Club on Wednesday. The Opposition bloc’s last meeting took place in June this year. Since then, the country’s political landscape has seen several key developments, including protests over paper leaks at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar and elsewhere and the latest expose on the unprecedented rift within the Election Commission.