Hyderabad: Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Sunday (November 1) said Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar would be removed from office and jailed, and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah would face legal action over what he called "vote chori". Addressing an INDIA bloc rally at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi, Gandhi also described the 2024 general election as "illegal".
The rally marked the culmination of the bloc's "Chalo Delhi" protest march against the Chief Election Commissioner and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The march began at the Minto Road-Connaught Place junction and proceeded to Ramlila Maidan. Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, along with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, were among those present. The rally came a day after a public "impeachment" programme against the CEC was held in the capital.
Gandhi's address focused on alleged deletions from electoral rolls. He claimed that around 15 per cent of the electorate had been removed, amounting to roughly one in every seven voters. He put the figure at 13.5 crore, although he also referred to 13.3 crore names being removed from the 2024 list during the same speech.
He said the gap between the BJP-led NDA and the INDIA bloc was only three per cent and claimed that the Election Commission's own data supported his argument.
"This theft of votes is no ordinary theft. This is the theft of every voice of India. This is called treason," Gandhi said in Hindi.
He further alleged that Modi would not have become prime minister, nor Amit Shah home minister, without Kumar. Gandhi said removing the CEC was the first step towards putting the country back on course.
The BJP rejected the allegations. Party chief Nitin Nabin accused Gandhi of acting at the behest of foreign forces to create disorder. He questioned why the Opposition accepted electoral victories in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka as democratic outcomes but challenged results in Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.
Nabin also accused the Congress of wanting democracy to function "according to the Gandhi family's law".
Gandhi also alleged that the RSS had taken control of institutions ranging from educational bodies to investigative agencies. Invoking the image of "Shiv ji ki baraat", he said anyone should be able to join it.
He said the Congress would not respond to hatred with hatred and referred to the party's "Mohabbat Ki Dukaan" formulation. "No matter how much money you have, you are not bigger than the Constitution," he said. (with inputs from media organisations)