'BJP turning Election Commission into tool for vote chori': Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday claimed that the BJP is turning the Election Commission into a "tool" for "vote chori", a day after he accused the ruling party of committing the “biggest...act” of stealing votes.

Sharing a clip of his speech in Lok Sabha during the 'Discussion on Election Reforms', he posted on 'X', "India's public is asking these 3 very important and direct questions: 1. Why was the CJI removed from the EC selection panel? 2. Why was almost complete legal immunity given to the EC before the 2024 elections? 3. Why the hurry to destroy CCTV footage within 45 days?"

"The answer is one - BJP is turning the Election Commission into a tool for vote theft," he said. In Lok Sabha, he had demanded machine readable voter lists for all parties one month before elections, taking back the law that allows destruction of CCTV footage after 45 days, giving access to EVMs and changing the law that allows election commissioners "to get away with whatever they want to do".

As the discussion spilled over to Wednesday, senior Congress MP KC Venugopal said in Lok Sabha that the Election Commission had earned the trust of people but "unfortunately, its sanctity has been completely compromised".

Emphasising that the right to vote is "not a mercy of the government", he claimed that the "impartial umpire" has been replaced and the EC now "openly collapses under political pressure and has become partisan". Instead of preventing 'vote chori', he alleged the EC is "enabling it".

Questioning the government on excluding the Chief Justice of India from the selection committee to appoint Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners, he said the Supreme Court had directed that till a law on appointment of CEC and ECs is framed, the selection committee should have the Prime Minister, the CJI, and the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha as its members.

However, he said, the government brought a Bill in which the CJI was omitted from the selection panel. "Why was the CJI omitted? The government was scared of the CJI," he said.

Claiming that the EC ceased to be a neutral umpire, he referred to Prime Narendra Modi's certain remarks during the Lok Sabha campaign. For this, he said, the complaint was forwarded to BJP president J P Nadda.