Rahul alleges ‘institutionalised vote theft’ in Bihar, questions BJP's silence

Sharpening his attacks at the BJP and the Election Commission on the row raging over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar’s electoral rolls, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday (August 24) said the SIR was a “way to institutionalise (vote) theft”.

Also read | Rahul in Bihar: Will not allow NDA to steal votes of the poor through SIR

Addressing the media along with his coalition partners, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, Vikassheel Insaan Party chief Mukesh Sahni and Dipankar Bhattacharya of the CPI-MLL, in Araria, Rahul alleged that there is “a partnership between the Election Commission, the Election Commissioners and the BJP”. The Lok Sabha’s Leader of Opposition wondered why, despite the SIR in Bihar leading to the deletion of as many as 65 lakh voters from the electoral rolls, the BJP had not complained over the issue.

‘Why is BJP not complaining?’

“The Opposition is complaining that voters are being deleted; it is a fact that 65 lakh names have been deleted... why is the BJP not complaining?” Rahul asked, before asserting that it was so because the EC, poll commissioners and the BJP were working in tandem to delete names of those who vote for the Opposition parties.

“Vote chori” or vote theft is the central theme of Rahul and Tejashwi’s ongoing Bihar Voter Adhikar Yatra. The yatra was launched from Sasaram on August 17 and will conclude in Patna on September 1 after crossing 50 of the state’s 243 Assembly segments spread along on 1300-km route that covers Bihar’s Shahabad Magadh, Mithila, Seemanchal, Ang and Tirhut regions.

Ahead of their press conference on Sunday, Rahul and Tejashwi rode into the economically and socially backward Seemanchal’s Araria district on bikes, followed by a swarm of supporters and an even greater number of locals who had gathered along the yatra’s route to catch a glimpse of the two leaders.

Rahul urges EC to visit Bihar

Rahul told reporters in Araria that the Voter Adhikar Yatra had been receiving a very “natural and organic” response from “crores of people in the state who believe that their votes are being stolen”.

While the Election Commission has consistently rejected Rahul and Tejashwi’s claims, calling them “misleading” and slamming the two Opposition leaders for “using dirty words like vote chori”, Rahul urged the poll panel to “visit Bihar and assess the situation on the ground”.

“Every day we are meeting people who have been declared dead, people who have voted four or five times (in earlier elections) but their names have been deleted... Countless kids have approached me during the yatra and whispered in my ear, ‘vote chor, gaddi chhod’ (vote thief, quit power)... even a six-year-old child in Bihar today knows that elections are being stolen; the EC can just come and speak to these children,” Rahul said.

Tejashwi slams poll panel

Tejashwi and Bhattacharya echoed Rahul’s views, with both slamming the poll panel for colluding with the BJP to delete the Opposition’s voters from electoral rolls.

Also read | 'Vote chori' allegations: Do Indians trust Rahul Gandhi or EC? | Survey

In a scathing broadside at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Tejashwi said, “There is no bigger liar in the country today than the prime minister; the other day in Gaya he tried to justify the SIR by saying that only names of ‘ghuspaithiyas’ (infiltrators) are being deleted while in its affidavit to the Supreme Court (in response to petitions challenging the SIR) the EC has itself made no mention of 'ghuspaithiyas'. The only thing this prime minister knows is to promote communal tension and division.”

BJP, EC under Opposition fire

Bhattacharya too hit out at the poll panel for repeatedly accusing the Opposition of maligning the reputation of the commission. “It is the EC that has maligned its own reputation by its own conduct... everyone in the country today knows that the chunav aayog (EC) has today become chunav chori aayog (Election Theft Commission); it is no longer the Election Commission of India but the Election Omission of India.”

Bhattacharya also claimed that “the very fact that 65 lakh names have been deleted (from the electoral rolls) and the BJP is silent shows that the BJP knows that the deleted voters are those of the Opposition; this shows the complicity of the BJP with the EC in stealing votes.”