Won’t let ‘plot’ to ‘steal’ Bihar polls via SIR succeed: Rahul

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday (August 17) said the entire country now knows that the Election Commission is “stealing” the elections in collusion with the BJP and asserted that the Indian bloc will not let them succeed in their “plot” to steal the Bihar Assembly polls through additions and deletions of voters under the intensive special revision of electoral rolls.

Addressing the gathering in Sasaram, Bihar, at the launch event of his 1,300-km ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’ covering over 20 districts of Bihar, Gandhi said that though he was asked to submit an affidavit after his press conference exposing ‘vote chori’, no such demand had been made by the BJP leaders who made statements in their press.

“Across the country, Assembly and Lok Sabha elections are being stolen and their latest conspiracy is to delete and add voters through SIR to steal elections in Bihar,” Gandhi accused.

Also read: Election Commission seeks proof amid Rahul Gandhi’s ‘vote theft’ allegations

“We will not let them steal elections in Bihar. People of Bihar will not let them steal elections. The poor only have the power to vote and will not let them steal polls,” the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said. He added that the entire country now knows what the EC is doing and how it is carrying out this “theft”.

Gandhi said his press conference a few days ago revealed how the ‘chori vote’ was organized. He said it was a fight to save the Constitution. Gandhi claimed that across India, the RSS and the BJP are trying to “destroy” the Constitution.

“In every election, the BJP wins. In Maharashtra, all the opinion polls said that the INDIA bloc would win. In the Lok Sabha, our alliance had won, but after four months in the same Maharashtra, the BJP alliance swept the polls with one crore voters added, and wherever such additions happened, the BJP won,” Gandhi said. He said the Congress had shown that more than one lakh votes were stolen from one assembly segment and the BJP had won that Lok Sabha seat.

Also read: Rahul Gandhi to launch 16-day ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar from August 17

The Yatra launch event here was attended by personalities such as Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, RJD leader Lalu Prasad, Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav, Mukesh Sahani of Vikassheel Insaan Party, Liberation CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Subhashini Ali of the CPI (M) and the general secretary of the CPI (ML). P.Sandosh Kumar.

Barely three months away from the Assembly elections, Gandhi, along with RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav and other Mahagathbandhan leaders, launched the 1,300 km yatra from BIADA Ground, Sasaram, and after 16 days, the yatra will end with a rally in Patna on September 1.

In a Hindi message on X on Saturday, Gandhi had said: “16 days, more than 20 districts, more than 1,300 km. We arrive among the people with the Adhikar Yatra voter. This is a fight to protect the most fundamental democratic right: “one person, one vote”. “Join us in Bihar to save the Constitution,” he added.

The ‘yatra’ will be done in a hybrid mode, on foot and in vehicles, as Gandhi’s Manipur to Mumbai Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra was before the Lok Sabha elections, party leaders said.

Also read: He fears that followers of Savarkar and Godse’s ideology will harm him, Rahul Gandhi tells court

The ‘yatra’ will pass through Aurangabad, Gaya, Nawada, Nalanda, Sheikhpura, Lakhisarai, Munger, Bhagalpur, Katihar, Purnea, Araria, Supaul, Madhubani, Darbhanga, Sitamarhi, East Champaran, West Champaran, Gopalganj, Siwan, Chapra and Ara.