Rahul Gandhi links Shah’s claim of ruling for 40-50 years to vote theft

MADHUBANI (BIHAR)– Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi  linked Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s claims of the BJP ruling for another 40-50 years to the vote theft being committed by the party across the country.

Addressing ‘Samajik Samvad’ programme here today, Gandhi said, when Shah made these claims of ruling for another 40-50 years, he was surprised as how someone can talk like that as nobody knows what is in people’s mind.

But, Gandhi added, such confidence would come only if he (Shah) was sure about stealing the votes. He said it all started from Gujarat and spread nationally after 2014.

The Congress leader said, although he was quite suspicious for a long time, as a responsible leader, he did not want to speak till he did not have proof. He said, when about one crore new voters were added in Maharashtra within a span of four months, resulting in the victory of BJP’s alliance in the Assembly polls, the suspicion grew stronger that the party was stealing votes and elections.

He said, while the INDIA bloc swept the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra, it lost badly within four months. When they probed, Gandhi added, it was found that the Congress and its alliance partners did not lose any votes, but all the new one crore voters voted for the BJP and its allies.

Accusing the Election Commission of connivance and collusion with the BJP, he said, when the Congress asked for the voter lists of the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, it refused to provide the same. Even the CCTV footage was declined and the rule was changed that it will be deleted within 45 days, he added.

Pointing to the deep design of the BJP on vote theft, he revealed that in 2023, the BJP government changed the law, providing immunity to the Election Commissioners from any legal action. He said, this was done to let the Election Commissioners collude with the BJP without any fear of legal repercussions. He said, the selection of the Election Commissioners is now the discretion of the Prime Minister only.

The Leader of the Opposition said that the BJP’s gameplan is to first delete the names of supporters of Opposition parties and then add the names of its supporters in the voter list, and it’s also being done in Bihar by deleting names of 65 lakh voters.

The senior Congress leader, holding a copy of the Constitution, said, it will serve no purpose if one’s voting right is snatched. He said, the Constitution will lose its power if equal voting right is taken away.

In the same context, he said, the purpose of taking out the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar was to prevent any vote theft here. He reiterated that the Congress was committed to the caste census and removing the fifty percent ceiling on reservations. He said, all this will change the paradigm of development, not only in Bihar, but in the whole country.

Gandhi said, all this will be possible only if the votes are not allowed to be stolen, the way they were stolen in Maharashtra and Haryana.

Expressing his gratitude to the multitude of people who had thronged to the rally today and who have been participating in the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’, he said, till now he had only heard that revolutions start from Bihar, now he has experienced it personally that revolutions do actually start from Bihar.

Among those present were Congress general secretary in-charge organisation KC Venugopal, Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav, Bihar PCC president Rajesh Ram and others.