The Crossbill Team
Launching his ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar’s Sasaram on Sunday (August 17), Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Election Commission of “stealing votes” and conspiring to subvert democracy through the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.
Addressing a rally at the BIADA ground, Patna, Gandhi said the exercise was the “latest conspiracy to steal elections by adding and deleting votes,” and vowed that the INDIA bloc would resist what he described as “vote chori.”
The yatra, modelled on Gandhi’s earlier Bharat Jodo Yatra and Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, will travel over 1,300 km across 23 districts and 29 Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar, covering 50 Assembly segments. Participants will march both on foot and by vehicle.
The rally was attended by prominent INDIA bloc leaders, including Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, Bihar Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, CPI’s Sandosh Kumar P and others.
In his address, Gandhi alleged that the BJP, backed by the RSS, was attempting to “destroy the Constitution” and undermine the democratic process.
“In Maharashtra, opinion polls showed we were ahead, we won the Lok Sabha elections but lost the Assembly polls. We later discovered that one crore new voters were added between the two elections. Where voters were added, the BJP won,” he claimed.
Gandhi also reiterated his allegation that more than one lakh votes were manipulated in Karnataka’s Mahadevapura Assembly constituency during the 2024 general elections. He said the Congress had sought video recordings of polling from the Election Commission, but the request was denied.
Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of working for billionaires while ignoring ordinary citizens, and reiterated his party’s demand for a caste census and the removal of the 50 percent cap on reservations.
“They said they would do it under pressure, but they never will,” he said.
Tejashwi Yadav, addressing the gathering, asserted that the people of Bihar would not allow their rights to be trampled.
“We may be poor, but we are sharp and will not bow down,” he said.
Accusing the BJP of using the Election Commission to engineer voter deletions, he said, “People have been declared dead by the ECI. This is not vote theft, this is robbery of votes. Modi, Amit Shah and the ECI should hear this—we will not let democracy be finished in Bihar. We will fight for the people.”
Tejashwi also noted that his father Lalu Prasad Yadav had attended the rally despite medical advice, underscoring his commitment to guiding the alliance. He appealed to the people of Bihar to deliver a decisive verdict against the BJP and elect a Mahagathbandhan government in the state.
The march and rally come against the backdrop of growing opposition protests against the electoral roll revision in Bihar.
On August 14, the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission to publish a searchable list of nearly 65 lakh voter names omitted from the draft rolls along with reasons for their deletion, following petitions challenging the exercise.
Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders have described the move as further evidence of what they allege is systematic “vote theft” under the Modi government.
Addressing a rally at the BIADA ground, Patna, Gandhi said the exercise was the “latest conspiracy to steal elections by adding and deleting votes,” and vowed that the INDIA bloc would resist what he described as “vote chori.”
The yatra, modelled on Gandhi’s earlier Bharat Jodo Yatra and Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, will travel over 1,300 km across 23 districts and 29 Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar, covering 50 Assembly segments. Participants will march both on foot and by vehicle.
The rally was attended by prominent INDIA bloc leaders, including Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, Bihar Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, CPI’s Sandosh Kumar P and others.
In his address, Gandhi alleged that the BJP, backed by the RSS, was attempting to “destroy the Constitution” and undermine the democratic process.
“In Maharashtra, opinion polls showed we were ahead, we won the Lok Sabha elections but lost the Assembly polls. We later discovered that one crore new voters were added between the two elections. Where voters were added, the BJP won,” he claimed.
Gandhi also reiterated his allegation that more than one lakh votes were manipulated in Karnataka’s Mahadevapura Assembly constituency during the 2024 general elections. He said the Congress had sought video recordings of polling from the Election Commission, but the request was denied.
Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of working for billionaires while ignoring ordinary citizens, and reiterated his party’s demand for a caste census and the removal of the 50 percent cap on reservations.
“They said they would do it under pressure, but they never will,” he said.
Tejashwi Yadav, addressing the gathering, asserted that the people of Bihar would not allow their rights to be trampled.
“We may be poor, but we are sharp and will not bow down,” he said.
Accusing the BJP of using the Election Commission to engineer voter deletions, he said, “People have been declared dead by the ECI. This is not vote theft, this is robbery of votes. Modi, Amit Shah and the ECI should hear this—we will not let democracy be finished in Bihar. We will fight for the people.”
Tejashwi also noted that his father Lalu Prasad Yadav had attended the rally despite medical advice, underscoring his commitment to guiding the alliance. He appealed to the people of Bihar to deliver a decisive verdict against the BJP and elect a Mahagathbandhan government in the state.
The march and rally come against the backdrop of growing opposition protests against the electoral roll revision in Bihar.
On August 14, the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission to publish a searchable list of nearly 65 lakh voter names omitted from the draft rolls along with reasons for their deletion, following petitions challenging the exercise.
Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders have described the move as further evidence of what they allege is systematic “vote theft” under the Modi government.
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