Rahul Gandhi on 'vote chori' | 'Confident that next target will be Bihar'

New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday claimed that the next episode of 'vote chori' (vote theft) will happen in Bihar Assembly elections to steal the government and is "confident" that he will be able to show that the modus operandi used elsewhere in the country was used to defeat the Opposition.

Addressing a press conference where he claimed large-scale voter manipulation in Haryana where the BJP won the Assembly elections last year, he alleged that a system is now in place to steal votes and governments and it is being "industrialised".

He alleged the same methods -- duplicate voters, bulk voters, registering voters using invalid addresses and suspicious additions and deletions -- will be used in Bihar.

"I am confident that after the Bihar election, we will show you that the same thing has happened in Bihar," he said, amid some sections reading the remarks as a tacit admission that the I.N.D.I.A bloc may lose the Bihar elections.

People might be asking how could they not see such anomalies earlier, he said adding parties get voter lists at the last minute before elections.

"A systematic method has been evolved by the Prime Minister, BJP and the Election Commission to kill the Constitution and to kill Indian democracy," he said. At the press conference, Rahul also presented a few voters from Bihar, who claimed their votes were deleted.

Ravi Kumar Yadav from Bihar's Jamui said 187 votes were deleted in his village while a disabled person said his name was deleted citing that he was not an ordinary resident of the village. Mohd Ansari claimed his name was also deleted and when he asked the reason, he was told that his name could not be added.

Exhorting Gen Z and youth to fight for saving the democracy, he said, "India's Gen Z and youth have the power to restore our democracy with 'satya' (truth) and 'ahimsa' (non-violence)," he said while adding, "you show know that your democracy is being stolen."

"I was in shock, I simply could not believe what we found. I asked the team to cross check multiple times. I want young people, Gen Z to understand this clearly as your future is being stolen," Gandhi said.