Following a press conference by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Rahul Gandhi, a senior Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, retaliated during a ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar. He alleged that the Election Commission is now openly engaging in electoral theft, previously done covertly. Gandhi stated that the Election Commission has devised a new strategy, referred to as SIR (an acronym interpreted as a method to steal votes from the people of Bihar). He asserted that the commission is now conducting these actions openly.
Gandhi questioned the changes made to the CCTV laws, asking why the government altered the legislation. He highlighted that no cases are filed against election commissioners and that the law was changed in 2023 to protect the commission from legal action, implying that this was done because the Election Commission is complicit in electoral fraud. He vowed to prevent vote theft in Bihar.
He stated that the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar was initiated because people have long suspected electoral malpractices. He cited the example of Maharashtra, where the BJP alliance won the Lok Sabha elections, but four months later, the BJP won the assembly elections. Upon investigation, it was discovered that the Election Commission had magically created 1 crore new voters in Maharashtra between the two elections.
He noted that wherever these new voters appeared, the BJP won. He stated that the Congress alliance’s votes remained consistent in both elections, but the new voters’ votes went to the BJP. When they questioned the Election Commission about the source and identity of these new voters, they received no response. They requested CCTV footage and electronic voter lists but were denied access.
Gandhi stated that the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, attempted to defend against the accusations of vote theft but spoke the language of the BJP throughout the press conference. He accused the Election Commission of not only being involved in ‘vote theft’ but also of acting with arrogance, adding that the commission had no answers to any questions.
He then presented a series of questions that the Congress posed to the Election Commission, along with their purported answers. These included questions regarding why the total votes in Maharashtra exceeded the adult population, how multiple voters could be registered in the same household, why SIR was being implemented so quickly in Bihar, and why SIR was necessary despite the flood situation in Bihar. The answers provided were deemed illogical.
Additional questions and answers included why booth videography could not be done (the answer cited concerns about women’s privacy), why zero-numbered houses were considered valid addresses, how individuals could have multiple votes, and why voter lists could not be provided in a digital, machine-readable format. The responses were considered unsatisfactory.
Gandhi questioned why the Election Commission was involved in vote theft and accused the commission of being disrespectful to the constitution. The Congress statement emphasized that by undermining the principle of ‘one person, one vote,’ the commission is effectively undermining the constitution. He demanded that the Election Commission halt the blatant vote manipulation and fulfill its responsibility to conduct fair elections and create clean and transparent voter lists.
He also pointed out that the exclusion of the Chief Justice in the appointment of election commissioners by Prime Minister Modi was a deliberate move, suggesting that it allowed the appointment of pliable individuals. He concluded that the commission failed to address the evidence of vote theft presented by the opposition and resorted to excuses, warning that the law of the land would not forgive the tampering with democracy and that they would be held accountable.