Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened fire on the Election Commission of India during his Voter Adhikar Yatra in Bihar, accusing the commission of colluding with the ruling party to facilitate vote theft. Speaking in Gaya on Monday, 18 August 2025, he lambasted the EC’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, deeming it a “new weapon of vote chori” and asserted that Congress will expose misconduct in every Assembly and Lok Sabha constituency across the country.
Gandhi targeted the three election commissioners directly, challenging their impartiality and raising questions about institutional integrity. He criticised their demand for a sworn affidavit to substantiate his claims, warning that soon the entire nation—not only he—will insist on such accountability. Simultaneously, Congress workers gathered in Agra to protest outside Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s residence, accusing the EC of tampering with voter rolls. They demanded his resignation and an apology, though the protest remained peaceful and orderly with no formal complaints filed.
Rahul Gandhi’s allegations stem from a series of investigations undertaken by Congress, which he likened to an “atom bomb”. The Mahadevapura Assembly segment in Karnataka forms the crux of his evidence, where he claims more than 100,000 votes were manipulated through duplicate entries, invalid addresses, bulk registrations, improper documentation, and other irregularities. He invited the EC to release ten years of electronic voter lists and polling videography, promising that such data would make the fraud undeniable.
The Election Commission has issued a sharp rebuttal, demanding Gandhi present his allegations under oath or face discreditation of his claims as baseless. Chief Election Commissioner Kumar gave him a seven-day window to provide a formal affidavit or risk the accusations being deemed invalid.
The political backlash has been swift. The BJP denounced the claims as politically motivated and accused Gandhi of mounting a selective campaign—calling into question why he had not made similar allegations when his party performed well electorally. The EC itself was defended as a constitutional institution under attack from irresponsible accusations.
Law and judicial oversight have entered the fray. An interim Supreme Court order has compelled the EC to publish the list of omitted names from the Bihar draft electoral rolls. This disclosure came as Gandhi continued his state-wide campaign, emphasising democratic rights and questioning the motives behind SIR.
The Voter Adhikar Yatra, now a 16-day odyssey across Bihar, has become a focal point in the opposition’s strategy to highlight systemic electoral vulnerabilities. Gandhi invoked the principle of ‘one person, one vote’, arguing that any manipulation—including voter deletions or additions—erodes the bedrock of democracy.
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