Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Saturday launched a sharp attack on the BJP and the Election Commission of India (ECI), alleging that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has been “turned into a weapon to dismantle the constitutional right” to vote. He further alleged that the EC “is no longer democracy’s guardian but chief accomplice in this vote theft conspiracy.““Wherever there’s SIR, there’s vote theft. What is being done in Gujarat in the name of SIR is not any kind of administrative process, it is a well-planned, organised, and strategic vote chori,” he said in a post in Hindi on X.The Congress leader said that SIR undermines the principle of “one person, one vote” and allows the BJP, rather than voters, to decide who remains in power.“SIR has been turned into a weapon to dismantle the constitutional right to ‘one person, one vote’—so that it’s not the people, but the BJP, who decide who stays in power,” Rahul alleged.“And the gravest truth is that the Election Commission is no longer democracy’s guardian; it’s become the chief accomplice in this vote-theft conspiracy,” he added.Rahul claimed that votes were “selectively removed from specific communities and booths” that support the Congress. “Wherever the BJP sees a potential defeat, voters are simply made to disappear from the system,” he said.The Congress leader alleged that a similar pattern had been seen earlier. “This same pattern was seen in Aland. The same thing happened in Rajura. And now the same blueprint is being implemented in Gujarat, Rajasthan, and every state where SIR has been imposed,” he said.His remarks came after the Gujarat Congress alleged large-scale manipulation during the SIR process in the state. In a post on X, the party claimed that, “Election rigging means the theft of your voting rights, and this new game has come to light in Gujarat. According to the rules, the Election Commission, after the SIR, released the draft list and began accepting objections, setting January 18 as the final date. Only a handful of objections were received until January 15, but the real game began afterward. Under a conspiracy, millions of objections (Form 7) were suddenly submitted.“The state Congress further alleged that when the main opposition party sought details of the objections from the Election Commission, it received no response. “This is because the Election Commission has mortgaged both its responsibility and accountability to the ruling party,” the state unit claimed.
