New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday claimed that a “systematic vote chori” method, evolved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Election Commission to “kill Indian democracy”, will be deployed in the Bihar assembly polls as well.
A day before the polling for the first phase of the Bihar assembly polls, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha made the remarks at a press conference during which he put up a presentation to back his claim that the Haryana assembly polls last year were “stolen”.
“It is very clear who is responsible for the vote theft. (Pointing to a picture of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the two election commissioners, Gandhi said). These gentlemen colluded with the BJP to ensure that the Congress could not win the election in Haryana. The Election Commission is in a partnership with the prime minister and the home minister (Amit Shah) and they have destroyed the democratic foundations of this country,” Gandhi alleged.
“It is pretty clear to us that now this is a system, this is something that has now been industrialised and it can be used in any state and it is going to be used in Bihar. I am confident that after the Bihar elections, we will get the same records and we will show you that the same thing has happened in Bihar,” the former Congress chief said.
Responding to Gandhi’s vote manipulation charge, EC officials said it is “unfounded” as no appeals were filed against the electoral rolls in Haryana.
In his presser, Gandhi said political parties cannot work to foil “vote chori” designs as voters list comes at the last minute before the elections.
“This is the systematic method that has been evolved by the prime minister, the BJP and the Election Commission to kill the Constitution and to kill Indian democracy,” he said.
Gandhi also called on stage some people from a Bihar village whose names have been deleted in the special intensive revision of electoral rolls.
One of the people whose name had been deleted from the electoral roll claimed that the names of 187 people in his village had been removed, the Congress leader said.
“This is the tip of the iceberg, we are absolutely certain, we will be able to do the same presentation for you once the data comes (for Bihar polls). We have no doubt…This is the state of Indian democracy,” Gandhi said.
Responding to a question, he also said voters list integrity is not the responsibility of any political party, but that of the EC.
“What the Election Commission does is that it tries to put the onus on the political parties to solve the problem. We cannot solve the problem. If you give us the data we will solve the problem but we cannot solve the problem unless they give us the database,” he said.
In September, Gandhi had accused CEC Kumar of protecting those who “destroyed democracy” and cited data from the Aland assembly constituency in Karnataka to claim that votes of Congress supporters were being systematically deleted ahead of elections.
In August, Gandhi, citing data from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, had claimed that over one lakh votes were “stolen” through manipulation in Mahadevapura assembly segment in Karnataka.
The Bihar polls will be held in two phases on November 6 and 11, and results will be announced on November 14.
The opposition INDIA bloc, which has the RJD, the Congress and the Left parties as the main constituents, has declared RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav its chief ministerial candidate.
