New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday claimed that the Election Commission has been caught “red handed” stealing votes in the name of Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, and asked whether the poll body has completely become BJP’s ‘Election chori branch’.
The EC has all along maintained that the revision, being held after 22 years, will cleanse the voters’ list of ineligible people, duplicate entries and include those eligible as per law to vote.
Gandhi shared a post by Ajit Anjum, whose YouTube channel is running a series on special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.
“Election Commission in Bihar has been caught red handed stealing votes in the name of ‘SIR’. Work – just theft but name is ‘SIR’ and FIR will be lodged against the one who exposes it!” Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X.
‘Is EC still ‘Election Commission’ or has it completely become BJP’s ‘Election Chori’ branch?” the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said.
Anjum has been accused of spreading communal tensions in Begusarai district by the local administration.
He had denied the allegation and shared a screenshot of an FIR lodged against him.
Opposition parties have asserted that the ongoing exercise will disfranchise crores of eligible Indian citizens for the want of citizenship documents.
On Wednesday, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar thanked the eligible voters of Bihar for their active participation in the “much-needed” cleaning of the electoral rolls during SIR. Kumar’s remarks came in the backdrop of the Supreme Court hearing a clutch of pleas questioning the intent behind the SIR ahead of the assembly polls in the state later this year.
Rahul talking about corruption is like a thief donning the role of a watchman, the BJP said on Thursday, as it lashed out at the Congress leader for claiming that Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma will be put in jail by his party on graft charges.
BJP national spokesperson Syed Zafar Islam accused Gandhi of trying to spread chaos in his bid to look for excuses for the Congress’ frequent poll defeats, noting that he is himself facing corruption charges and is on bail, a reference to the National Herald case.
“He considers himself a king but people have rejected him three times, repeatedly trashing his model based on corruption and anarchy,” Islam told reporters, a day after Gandhi created a stir with his statement in Assam that Congress workers will send Sarma to jail and that his party will sweep the assembly polls to be held next year.
“It is like a thief donning the role of a watchman,” he said, asserting that Sarma is a popularly elected leader whose good governance has been endorsed by voters of the state. He has not won due to Gandhi’s generosity, the BJP leader said in a swipe.
The BJP spokesperson alleged that Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders, including RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, are trying to spread chaos by targeting the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in Bihar.