Patna: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that the 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections were “rigged” to favour the BJP and claimed that the NDA government at the Centre wants to repeat it in the Bihar polls due later this year.
Addressing INDIA bloc workers during a protest march to the Election Commission’s office in Patna against the ongoing special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, Gandhi said, “Maharashtra assembly elections were rigged to favour the BJP and the NDA. They want to repeat it in Bihar, which we will not allow.”
He alleged that the special intensive revision was an extension of the ‘Maharashtra model’ of fudging electoral rolls and would “steal not just people’s right to vote but their entire future”.
“The Election Commission must protect the Constitution… it is working on instructions from the BJP. These Election Commissioners have been nominated by the BJP. The special intensive revision 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.
The leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, who arrived in the state capital in the morning, was accompanied by leaders of alliance partners such as Tejashwi Yadav of RJD, besides D Raja, M A Baby and Dipankar Bhattacharya, general secretaries of CPI, CPI(M) and CPI(ML), respectively.
He alleged that the Election Commission comprised persons “nominated by the BJP” and the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar was aimed at “serving” the party in power.
Gandhi had flown down to join the state-wide protests which are a part of the nationwide ‘chakka jam’ called by trade unions against the four new labour codes, to which in Bihar has been added the issue of the electoral roll revision.
Waving a red copy of the Constitution, that has become his style, he said, “The EC has, of late, been speaking the language of the BJP-RSS. Earlier, EC members’ selection involved the Chief Justice of India and the LoP. But now, we are virtually kept out of the process and handed over a piece of paper containing names of Election Commissioners nominated by the BJP.”
“We have already exposed the Maharashtra model,” Gandhi said, alluding to alleged addition of ‘bogus voters’ in electoral rolls of the western state where the BJP-led coalition achieved a landslide victory in assembly polls last year, months after being drubbed in the Lok Sabha elections.
“Glaring anomalies were found in the electoral rolls of Maharashtra where thousands of electors were shown to be residents of one house. The EC refused to share with us details when we flagged the discrepancies and kept speaking the language of BJP-RSS. They must remember they are here to serve the people and not for serving the BJP,” the former Congress president said.
Gandhi added, “They want to replicate the Maharashtra model elsewhere. This time they may try to delete the names of many voters. But they must know this is Bihar. The people here can see through the designs.”
Addressing the gathering, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav alleged that the Election Commission has become a part of a political party.
“First, names will be removed, then your pension, ration will be snatched away. They will snatch people’s right to vote. We will not allow this to happen. The dictatorial government of the RSS-BJP-Nitish combine will face a humiliating defeat… We will not allow them to succeed in their design. We will not let democracy be extinguished from Bihar.”
“The Election Commission has become a puppet commission. Biharis may be poor, but they are aware, alert, and ready for struggle,” the RJD leader added.
Echoing a similar view, Dipankar Bhattacharya described the ongoing SIR as “votebandi”.
“Voters whose names were not there in the 2003 voter list will have to prove that they are citizens. And the conditions that have been set by the EC make it very difficult for the people of Bihar. It’s votebandi,” he said.
The opposition’s contention is that the special intensive revision, which is being undertaken about a couple of months ahead of the assembly polls, put a lot of evidentiary burden on voters and many names might be “wrongfully deleted” to benefit the BJP, which has been claiming that many illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar have been included in electoral rolls by those practicing “vote bank politics”.
