Congress to launch month-long campaign against SIR and electoral rolls 'manipulation'

New Delhi: As Rahul Gandhi told his party colleagues that there are at least 48 Lok Sabha seats which the Congress lost to the BJP due to "vote theft", Congress on Tuesday announced a national campaign against Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and "manipulation" of electoral rolls.

It will be a month-long campaign to collect five crore signatures that the party wants to transform as a referendum against the "BJP’s destruction of democracy".

The decision was taken at a meeting of party General Secretaries, state in-charges and heads of frontal organisations chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal and Treasurer Ajay Maken among others.

On the eve of Independence Day on August 14, Venugopal said candlelight processions will be held in every districts while 'Vote Chor, Gaddi Chhod' rallies will be held in all state capitals between August 22 and September 7 during which state leadership will mobilise a large gathering to demand Election Commission's accountability.

A nationwide ‘Vote Chor, Gaddi Chhod’ campaign will also be launched between September 15 and October 15 to collect five crore signatures, serving as a "referendum against the BJP’s destruction of democracy", he said.

Venugopal said, "The entire country is shouting in one voice -- Vote Chor, Gaddi Chhod (Vote Thieves, Leave the Chair)...At the meeting, it was resolved to launch a nationwide campaign against this blatant murder of Indian democracy."

He said the meeting "unanimously congratulated the efforts and brave stand" of Rahul to "expose" the "serious issue of voter list manipulation" besides commending the leadership of Kharge for "leading this fight from the front".

Sources said Rahul told the leaders that there are at least 48 Lok Sabha seats where the Congress lost to the BJP by a "narrow margin" and where the "same modus operandi" was adopted as one saw in Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat. Rahul had last week alleged there were around one lakh "fake voters" in Mahadevapura Assembly segment of Bangalore Central constituency, which "helped the BJP win the seat".

Venugopal said the party would "defend the Constitution and safeguard the rights of every voter until their last breath". "This is not only a political fight - it is a fight to protect the soul of our democracy," the party said in its official X handle.