Electoral roll revision ‘conspiracy’ to steal Bihar polls like Maha: Rahul
Congress leader says election commissioners “are working like BJP and RSS functionaries” instead of doing the job the Constitution has given them
The 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections were “rigged” to favour the BJP and the NDA government at the Centre wants to repeat it in Bihar, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged in the poll-bound state on Wednesday (July 9).
Assembly elections in Bihar are due later this year.
The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha made no direct reference to the petitions against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) listed for hearing in the SC on Thursday but said he wanted to tell the Election Commission (EC), “You can do whatever you wish to right now but know this, the law will catch up... You have been given a job that requires you to uphold the Constitution and you are not doing that job but doing the BJP’s work.”
Also read: Nationwide strike in progress; Rahul leads protest march in Bihar against poll roll revision
EC’s new ‘model’ in Bihar
Addressing INDIA bloc workers during a protest march to the EC office in Patna against SIR, Rahul said, “There is a conspiracy to steal the elections in Bihar like they (BJP) stole the elections in Maharashtra. After we exposed the Maharashtra conspiracy of how 1 crore voters were added by the EC between the Lok Sabha polls and the assembly election to help the BJP win, the EC has resorted to a new model in Bihar to remove voters and help the BJP win.”
The former Congress president said the election commissioners “are working like BJP and RSS functionaries” instead of doing the job the Constitution has given them.
“The EC must protect the Constitution... it is working on instructions from the BJP. These Election Commissioners have been nominated by the BJP. The SIR of the electoral rolls is an attempt to steal an election. We will not allow the EC to steal the (voting) rights of the electorate, especially the youth,” he said.
Also read: EC defends Bihar voter list revision, calls it inclusive
INDIA bloc’s united show
Rahul, who arrived in Patna in the morning, was accompanied by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, CPI general secretary D Raja and senior leaders of other opposition parties.
“The people of Bihar will not allow their rights to be taken away, their election to be stolen,” the Congress leader asserted.
Rahul, along with the other leaders, was atop a vehicle during the protest march which started at Income Tax Golambar in Patna. Rail and road traffic were disrupted in parts of Bihar as workers of opposition parties hit the streets to enforce a statewide bandh called by the Mahagathbandhan. A large number of Opposition party leaders blocked the movement of road traffic on Patna’s Mahatma Gandhi Setu by burning tyres.
(With agency inputs)