<p>Patna: Continuing with his tirade against the Election Commission and making charges of ‘vote theft’, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi will launch a fortnight-long march called ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ (Voters’ Right March) from Sasaram in Bihar on August 17, Sunday.</p><p>The Congress’ march, in which leaders of all allies of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc in Bihar, including the RJD, the CPI-ML, CPM, CPI and the VIP (Vikasheel Insaan Party), are likely to participate, will focus on the fault-lines of the SIR (Special Intensive Revision) carried out in poll-bound Bihar.</p><p>Flanked by Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly and former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, Rahul will march through 22 out of Bihar’s 38 districts, criss-crossing the state in the next fortnight. The yatra will culminate with a rally at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on September 1.</p>.Public has woken up: Rahul Gandhi shares new video highlighting 'vote theft'. <p>The rally venue is significant in the sense that it is the same Gandhi Maidan in Patna from where veteran socialist late Jayaprakash Narayan, also called JP, in the mid-70s, gave a clarion call to uproot the then ‘mighty Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’ through his call for ‘Total Revolution’. Rahul too is expected to toe the same line and give a call to dethrone the present regime which, he insists, has rode to power through ‘vote theft’.</p><p>“This is not just an election issue but a decisive battle to protect democracy, the Constitution and the principle of one man-one vote,” said Rahul on social media. He asked the youth, farmers, workers and all citizens to join this ‘people’s movement’ so that their effort for a “clean voter list” is accomplished.</p><p>“The march will send a message across Bihar, where Assembly election is slated for October and November this year, to drive out those who have indulged in vote theft and rode to power through ‘vote chori’,” averred Bihar Congress president Rajesh Ram.</p><p>Notably, SIR in Bihar has been mired in controversy ever since it started on June 24 this year and ended on July 25. While the Opposition has highlighted the anomalies about how dead voters still figure in the list, while those alive have been declared dead, the Election Commission has insisted that SIR was a much-needed exercise to purify the voters’ list.</p><p>Post-SIR, the voters’ number in Bihar has come down from 7.9 crore to 7.2 crore.</p>
<p>Patna: Continuing with his tirade against the Election Commission and making charges of ‘vote theft’, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi will launch a fortnight-long march called ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ (Voters’ Right March) from Sasaram in Bihar on August 17, Sunday.</p><p>The Congress’ march, in which leaders of all allies of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc in Bihar, including the RJD, the CPI-ML, CPM, CPI and the VIP (Vikasheel Insaan Party), are likely to participate, will focus on the fault-lines of the SIR (Special Intensive Revision) carried out in poll-bound Bihar.</p><p>Flanked by Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly and former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, Rahul will march through 22 out of Bihar’s 38 districts, criss-crossing the state in the next fortnight. The yatra will culminate with a rally at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on September 1.</p>.Public has woken up: Rahul Gandhi shares new video highlighting 'vote theft'. <p>The rally venue is significant in the sense that it is the same Gandhi Maidan in Patna from where veteran socialist late Jayaprakash Narayan, also called JP, in the mid-70s, gave a clarion call to uproot the then ‘mighty Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’ through his call for ‘Total Revolution’. Rahul too is expected to toe the same line and give a call to dethrone the present regime which, he insists, has rode to power through ‘vote theft’.</p><p>“This is not just an election issue but a decisive battle to protect democracy, the Constitution and the principle of one man-one vote,” said Rahul on social media. He asked the youth, farmers, workers and all citizens to join this ‘people’s movement’ so that their effort for a “clean voter list” is accomplished.</p><p>“The march will send a message across Bihar, where Assembly election is slated for October and November this year, to drive out those who have indulged in vote theft and rode to power through ‘vote chori’,” averred Bihar Congress president Rajesh Ram.</p><p>Notably, SIR in Bihar has been mired in controversy ever since it started on June 24 this year and ended on July 25. While the Opposition has highlighted the anomalies about how dead voters still figure in the list, while those alive have been declared dead, the Election Commission has insisted that SIR was a much-needed exercise to purify the voters’ list.</p><p>Post-SIR, the voters’ number in Bihar has come down from 7.9 crore to 7.2 crore.</p>