‘EC is BJP’s Agent, Using SIR to Steal Votes’: Rahul Gandhi Doubles Down on Attack in Bihar

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday intensified his assault on the Election Commission, accusing the poll body of acting as an agent for the BJP to “steal people’s votes” in poll-bound Bihar. Speaking at a rally in Araria during the ongoing ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’, with RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav by his side, Gandhi alleged that the Narendra Modi government is now attempting to rig elections through the Special Summary Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

“Every person has one vote and all votes are equal. They are trying to steal votes,” Gandhi claimed, asserting that after privatising public sector units, the government now aims to “steal the votes of the poor” with the Election Commission’s help. He declared that the opposition’s INDIA bloc would not allow this to happen in Bihar and that the people would give a “befitting reply” to the BJP and its allies in the upcoming assembly polls.

Labelling the SIR process as an “anti-constitutional” and “institutionalised attempt by the EC to steal votes,” Gandhi doubled down on his claims of the poll body’s partiality. He once again questioned why the Commission had demanded an affidavit from him for his allegations but not from Union Minister Anurag Thakur, who had made similar claims about irregularities in Wayanad. “If they were neutral, then an affidavit would have been asked from Anurag Thakur. So it is not neutral…There is a partnership between the Election Commission, Election Commissioner and BJP,” he alleged.

The fiery speeches are part of the 1,300-km ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’, a 16-day march launched on August 17 to raise concerns over alleged discrepancies in Bihar’s voter lists. The yatra is set to cover more than 20 districts before it culminates with a large rally in Patna on September 1.