Amid its Bihar election setback and renewed claims of “vote chori,” the Congress has convened a review meeting on November 18 for in-charges, state unit chiefs, Congress Legislature Party leaders and secretaries from 12 states and Union territories undergoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
A day after the party was routed in Bihar — with the NDA taking 202 seats against the Mahagathbandhan’s 35 — senior Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, met to assess the results and questioned the Election Commission’s role in the poll process.
A senior functionary said the November 18 review will be held at Indira Bhawan. On Saturday, the EC said more than 95 per cent of 5.99 crore electors across nine states and three UTs have received enumeration forms under the ongoing revision exercise.
In its daily SIR bulletin, the poll authority said over 48.67 crore enumeration forms have been distributed in the 12 states and UTs -- Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep.
Among these, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, and West Bengal will go to polls in 2026.
In Assam, where elections are also due in 2026, the revision of electoral rolls will be announced separately.
Phase-II of the SIR exercise began on November 4 with the enumeration stage, and will continue till December 4.
On Friday, Rahul Gandhi called the Bihar poll results surprising, and claimed that the election was not fair from the very beginning.
Gandhi also said the Congress and the INDIA bloc would conduct an in-depth review of the outcomes.
The Congress also claimed that the results, without a doubt, reflect "vote chori on a gigantic scale - masterminded by the prime minister, the home minister, the EC".
Gandhi's poll campaign against the BJP in Bihar revolved around his "vote chori"(vote theft) allegations.
