Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Sunday announced a mega rally at Ramlila Maidan on November 1, in a latest step in the INDIA bloc’s “vote chori” (vote theft) campaign, which centres on the Election Commission of India’s special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The campaign has moved from Parliament to the streets and, on October 12, to the Supreme Court. “Names have been removed from the voter lists. Rules and laws have been broken. And lathis have been used on those asking questions. Now the country will respond. The INDIA bloc is pressing for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the SIR exercise. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has attacked the choice of date. Meanwhile, the poll panel has defended SIR, saying that in Bihar the exercise weeded out names of the deceased, migrated and duplicate voters. He framed the contest as one that belongs to citizens and not only to political parties. “The vote is yours. Opposition leaders, activists and civil society members walked along a heavily barricaded route in Delhi and filed a joint petition challenging the SIR.
“Our votes are being stolen, and we will not tolerate this quietly under any circumstances,” Gandhi said, calling for the “Chalo Delhi” march. The party said Rahul Gandhi was “adamant” on November 1, the anniversary of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, and accused him of hurting the feelings of victims. Gandhi titled his message “Save the Vote, Save the Country” and billed the event as a “Jan March and Mega Rally”. The fight is also yours,” he said. Backing the leader’s line, Congress leader Pawan Khera said the BJP is rattled by the INDIA bloc’s earlier show of strength and is trying to get the rally postponed. “The BJP is so rattled by the INDIA alliance’s 12 October March, under Rahul Ji’s leadership, that it is getting people to convince us to postpone the 1 November Dilli Chalo March,” Khera said. “But let’s be clear: the march will happen,” he added, ruling out any change in the date. The October 12 event he referred to was the INDIA bloc’s “March for Democracy” to the Supreme Court. Congress general secretary KC Venugopal has called the November 1 march the party’s biggest against “vote chori” and said it will show the Opposition is united in protecting democracy.
Political analysts are divided on the campaign’s electoral impact. The Ramlila Maidan rally is seen as a test of whether the issue can be sustained nationally.
Some said the Bihar march gave the Congress a new lease of life in the state, but that SIR ultimately did not become a decisive electoral issue.
