Bihar SIR: Rahul Gandhi attacks Election Commission again, accuses it of election theft
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi launched an all-out attack on the Election Commission. The poll body faced Gandhi's ire over the SIR exercise. He accused the EC as acting as agents of the BJP. He claimed that the poll body was trying to steal the votes of the Opposition.
New Delhi: Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused the Election Commission of acting as the "election chori wing" of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Gandhi accused the EC of helping the BJP to commit voter fraud ahead of upcoming Bihar Elections.
Gandhi attacks EC on X
Gandhi reposted a video on X, which said that the election officials were filling up voters' forms without their knowledge. Reposting the video, he wrote, "The Election Commission has been caught doing 'voter theft' in Bihar in the name of SIR. The work is just theft in the name of SIR. FIR will be filed against the one who exposes it."
He further questioned whether the EC was still the Election Commission or had it totally turned into the 'Election Theft' wing of the BJP.
The Congress leader had reposted a video by a former TV journalist turned YouTuber on his social media handle.
The fresh attack by the Congress leader comes after the Opposition in Bihar accused the BJP and the ruling government in the state, the NDA of trying to cut out votes of people through SIR exercise. The BJP had supported this exercise saying that the names of fake voters, several migrants from Bangladesh who were holding voter IDs in Bihar would be deleted through this exercise. But the Opposition, including the Congress and RJD termed the exercise as a total sham.
This is however not the first time that Gandhi has questioned the authenticity and credibility of the Election Commission. Earlier he had written a newspaper article sparking debates about the credibility of the poll body and raised questions regarding Maharashtra Assembly Elections.
The SIR exercise was challenged in the Supreme Court. On July 10, the apex court permitted the poll body to continue the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The court however asked the EC to consider Aadhar card, rations cards and voter ID as valid proof of identity.
The EC said that by Saturday evening, 80.11 per cent of voters had submitted their forms. The Commission aims to complete the SIR exercise by July 25.