'Extreme immorality': Kharge attacks BJP over SIR issue, poor infra, unemployment in Independence Day speech

New Delhi: Accusing the BJP of willing to indulge in “extreme immorality” to remain in power, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday claimed that a “new trend” of sending a new voters list on the eve of polls in the guise of “additional list” has emerged, and called it a “conspiracy by opponents” as they cannot verify the names owing to paucity of time.

He also claimed election-related large-scale irregularities, including deletion of voters supporting the Opposition during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, have come to light, according to the text of Kharge's speech after hoisting the tricolour at the Congress headquarters on the occasion of Independence Day.

Kharge, also the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, said the impartiality of the Election Commission of India can be judged from the fact that it was “not willing to reveal” whose votes were being deleted and on what basis. He claimed those who are alive were marked as dead in the Bihar draft electoral rolls published after the SIR.

Thanking the Supreme Court for “listening to people's voice” and directing the EC to make such details public, he said the “most astonishing thing” is that the ruling BJP has no objection to around 65 lakh votes being deleted and this “makes it crystal clear” who this exercise was meant to benefit.

“A new trend has emerged: on the day before the election, a new voter List is sent under the name of an 'additional list', which the candidate cannot verify due to lack of time. This is the conspiracy of our opponents. But we must expose this conspiracy,” he said.

He asked all Congress leaders and workers to examine the voters' list of their booths and look for how many names were deleted and as dead, or have been deliberately shifted to another booth. “See how many outsiders’ names have been added, or how the same Voter ID Card has been added more than once in different places,” he said.

“Remember, this is not a fight to win an election; this is a fight to save Indian democracy. It is a fight to protect our Constitution,” he said.

Referring to Rahul Gandhi's press conference on alleged voters' list manipulation in a Karnataka seat, he said similar evidence is emerging in many other seats where the Congress had a lead in all Assembly segments except one, and a BJP lead in just one Assembly segment in a Lok Sabha seat leading to the party candidate's defeat.

“We have the same apprehension regarding the Maharashtra Assembly election results. The party is closely studying such seats, and this will be presented to the people at the right time,” he said.

He also said unemployment has taken on a severe form and instead of creating jobs, government policies are destroying them. "In the name of infrastructure development, the construction taking place is substandard and of poor quality," he said.

Kharge also alleged that Constitutional institutions are filled with people aligned to the BJP-RSS ideology instead of those with merit. They appoint whomever they wish, and remove them whenever they feel like it, he said.

"Institutions like the ED, Income Tax Department, and CBI have been used so openly for political purposes against opponents that even the Supreme Court of the country has had to hold up a mirror to them," he added.