Rahul Gandhi in Patna
Credit: AICC via PTI Photo
Patna: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Wednesday came down heavily on the Election Commission and questioned the poll panel’s bid to enforce Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar at such a short notice and complete voters’ revision task in such a short span.
“I feel the way ‘vote theft’ took place during Maharashtra election, a similar attempt is being made in Bihar too,” said Rahul, who was in Patna today and led the Opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc leaders’ march, also called ‘Chakka Jam’, from the Income Tax roundabout to the EC office at Mangles Road.
“In Maharashtra, we fared very well during the Lok Sabha elections (in an oblique reference to I.N.D.I.A. bloc winning 30 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats). But in the Assembly elections, held just a few months after the LS poll, we fared very poorly. We kept quiet for some time. But later we discovered that around 1 crore new voters were added in the electoral roll just before the Maharashtra Assembly polls. And wherever such additions were done in droves, the NDA nominees won,” said Rahul.
“But this is Bihar. The people of Bihar are agile. They won’t allow the EC to do a Maharashtra in Bihar,” he added.
Rahul was accompanied by Opposition leader in the Assembly Tejashwi Yadav, CPI leader D Raja, CPI-ML general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Bihar Congress president Rajesh Ram and other Opposition leaders.
Call for Revolution
Addressing the gathering, Tejashwi gave a call for Kranti (revolution) against the BJP and Nitish’s ‘Godi Aayog’ (Godi Aayog was a term used as satire for the Nirvachan Aayog – Election Commission). "Bihar is the mother of democracy. The people of Bihar won’t allow the EC to do its dadagiri (diktat) and finish democracy. Time has come to launch a ‘Kranti’ against the whims and fancies of EC,” said Tejashwi.
EC's Stand
The Election Commission, meanwhile, maintained that the SIR in Bihar was going on in the right direction and half of the 7.7 crore voters had submitted their enumeration forms. “Around 50 per cent of the 7.7 crore voters in Bihar have already submitted their enumeration forms. The rest will do so by July 25, the cut off date as the deadline,” said the EC, reiterating that it was carrying out its constitutional duty of voters’ list revision as mandated under Article 326 of the Constitution.
Bandh Effect
Meanwhile, 'Chakka Jam', the blockade call given by the Opposition on July 9, evoked mixed response with movement of vehicles and trains paralysed after road and rail routes were blocked. Traders too downed their shutters in major parts of Bihar including Patna, Jehanabad, Ara, Purnea, Araria, Khagaria and Muzaffarpur.