In this image released by @INCIndia via X on Aug. 17, 2025, LoP in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi with RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav during a rally as part of his 'Voter Adhikar Yatra', in Sasaram.
Credit: @INCIndia/X via PTI Photo
Patna: Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Sunday launched yet another vitriolic attack on the Election Commission and said "we will not allow the EC to do in Bihar what it did for the BJP during the Maharashtra elections"
“When I expose the EC how they have indulged in ‘vote-theft’ and helped the BJP win one after another election, the EC asks me to submit an affidavit. If a similar allegation is made by the BJP leader, the EC remains mum and nobody asks the ruling party member to submit an affidavit. We are not scared of the EC and will keep exposing the wrong-doings of the EC in the name of SIR (Special Intensive Revision) in Bihar,” said Rahul.
He was speaking at the launch of his 1300-km long ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ (Voters’ right march) from Sasaram on Sunday. This yatra will cover 22 out of 38 districts in Bihar in the next 15 days, cover 60 Assembly constituencies and culminate in Patna where the Congress and its allies in the I.N.D.I.A. bloc will hold a massive rally on September 1 against the so-called nexus between the BJP and the EC.
Flanked by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and RJD president Lalu Prasad, besides CPI-ML Dipankar Bhattacharya and CPM Subhashini Ali and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Rahul said the whole country is now aware of the EC’s ‘vote theft’ and their latest conspiracy is to steal polls in Bihar in the name of SIR. “We all know how some names are being deleted and some added in the name of SIR. All this is part of the conspiracy to steal polls in Bihar. But the people of Bihar are politically-conscious and won’t allow the EC to succeed in its design,” said Rahul.
To buttress his point, Rahul cited the case of Maharashtra where the I.N.D.I.A. bloc won 30 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra during the 2024 parliamentary polls. “But a few months later, when the Assembly elections were held, the same INDIA bloc had to bite the dust and the BJP-led alliance swept the polls. This was done through vote-theft by adding one crore new voters who never existed,” charged the Congress leader.
The EC, however, refuted all such charges and said the draft voters’ list in Bihar was in public domain. “The SIR exercise in the State is aimed at purifying the electoral roll. If any genuine voter has been left out, he or she may apply till August 30 and get it rectified. Our aim is that no eligible voter should be left out. And at the same time, no ineligible voter should figure in the voters’ list,” said the EC official.