Bihar SIR row: Rahul Gandhi repeats ‘chunav chori’ charge; alleges fresh ‘conspiracy’ by EC | India News
NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday upped his ante against Election Commission and accused it of hatching a conspiracy of “stealing the mandate” in poll-bound Bihar just like it did in Maharashtra last year.While addressing a public gathering in Odisha’s Bhubaneshwar, Rahul said that poll body is working for Bharatiya Janata Party and not doing its job.“The BJP is continuously attacking the Constitution. The way the election was stolen in Maharashtra, a similar attempt is being made to steal the election in Bihar. To steal the election, the Election Commission has started a new conspiracy. The Election Commission is working for the BJP, not doing its own job,” the Congress leader said.“Between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Maharashtra, one crore new voters appeared, but no one knows who these voters were or where they came from. We have repeatedly told the Election Commission – give us the voter list, give us the video, but the Election Commission is not providing them. These people also want to steal Bihar’s election, but we will never let that happen,” he added.This comes amid a row over poll body special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar just months ahead of assembly elections. The opposition has claimed the exercise will disfranchise millions of citizens from electoral rolls.However, the Supreme Court on Friday held the constitutionality of EC’s exercise but also asked it to consider Aadhaar, voter id card and ration card as valid documents for the ongoing exercise.According to the poll body, the exercise is part of its crackdown on illegal immigrants from countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar.The poll panel reminded the constitutional provision that says only Indian citizens can vote. “The Constitution of India is supreme. All citizens, political parties, and the Election Commission of India follow the Constitution,” EC said in a statement.The poll panel already has nearly 78,000 booth-level officers (BLOs) and is appointing over 20,000 more for new polling stations, it said.More than one lakh volunteers will be assisting genuine electors, particularly the old, sick, persons with disabilities, poor, and other vulnerable groups during the special intensive revision.Out of the existing 7,89,69,844 electors, 4.96 crore electors, whose names are already in the last intensive revision of the Electoral Roll on January 1, 2003, have to “simply verify so, fill the Enumeration Form and submit it.”The enumeration form should be filled between 25 June and 26 July, after which the draft voter list will be published on 1 August 2025; the period for filing claims and objections will be from 1 August to 1 September, and the final voter list will be published on 30 September.
