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.
Asserting that “vote chori” is an attack on the Constitution of BR Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha also stressed that this rigging must be stopped and it is the responsibility of all the people of the state, especially Gen Z, to come out and vote in large numbers.
A day before the polling for the first phase of the Bihar assembly polls, Gandhi 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”, and later in a video appeal to the Bihar voters.
After the presser, Gandhi issued the video appeal on X to the voters of Bihar and said, “Today you would have seen that I spoke about the truth of ‘vote chori’. The BJP stole the elections of Haryana and Maharashtra, earlier they also stole elections in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and now they are making all attempts to steal the Bihar election.”
“I talked about the story of some people from a village in Bihar (whose names were deleted from the voters list) but this has happened to lakhs of people in Bihar, votes have been deleted and the right to vote snatched from many people. ‘Vote Chori’ is an attack on the Constitution of BR Ambedkar ji and Mahatma Gandhi ji and we have to stop vote chori,” Gandhi said in his over one-minute 14-second video.
It is the responsibility of Bihar voters, especially the Gen Z, that they should come out in large numbers to vote, he said.
“It is Mahagathbandhan’s and my guarantee that we will form a government of the poor, farmers, labourers, of all castes, backwards, extremely backward, Dalits, Maha Dalits, minorities and poor general caste people. This government will include the voice of all the people of Bihar,” he asserted.
In his remarks at the press conference, Gandhi said, “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.”
“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.
