The Congress marshalled its ranks for a rally against “vote chori” here on Sunday, staging a show of strength after the poll rout in Bihar and warning the country’s election commissioners they would be made to answer for alleged voter list manipulation.
Party supporters who had gathered from across the country spilled out of the Ramlila Grounds, the size of almost two football pitches, throwing traffic in central Delhi into a gridlock.
Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, issued a threat, mentioning the chief election commissioner and the two election commissioners by name.
“Gyanesh Kumar, Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, Dr Vivek Joshi. Yaad rakhiye (remember), remember.... This battle between truth and falsehood is taking place. The EC (Election Commission) is working with the BJP government,” he said, addressing the crowd.
“Narendra Modi changed the (2023) law for (the appointment of) the election commissioners.... He said no action can be taken against the election commissioners, no matter what they do. No action can be taken against them.
“I am telling you from the stage, the Congress party is telling you. Don’t forget you are the election commissioners of India. You are not Narendra Modi’s election commissioners….
“We will change this law; we will change it retroactively and take action against you.”
Rahul has issued this threat repeatedly at his news conferences about the purported manipulation of voter lists in connivance with poll panel officials, alleging automated attempts to add bogus voters and delete genuine ones to give the BJP an edge.
Despite the crushing defeat in Bihar, where the Congress campaign was centred on the “vote chori” narrative targeting the “exclusionary” special intensive revision, Rahul made it clear he would stay the course.
The Congress chief ministers of Telangana and Himachal Pradesh, most of the party’s state unit heads, and its national president Mallikarjun Kharge addressed the rally. Congress parliamentary party president Sonia Gandhi, too, was on the stage.
Rahul’s sister and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra spoke before him.
She got the crowd to repeat the names of the three election commissioners and said: “This country will not forget these three names. No matter how many elaborate arrangements they make to protect these people, one day they will have to answer to this country on how they tried to snatch our right to vote.”
She added: “So, we kept debating in Parliament about whose national song it is.... And the big problems that you are facing — unemployment, inflation, paper leaks — they don’t have the courage to discuss them....”
Kharge mentioned several times that he was at the rally despite his son having had surgery on Friday.
“The soldier dies for his motherland and for the good of the country. Indira Gandhi sacrificed herself, Rajiv Gandhi sacrificed himself, and Sonia Gandhi sacrificed everything,” he said.
“And I... should I leave for my son, leave this Parliament, and abandon this huge procession, this great battle against vote rigging? I will not leave this fight.”
A straw poll by The Telegraph elicited a mixed response from the crowd on the traction that the “vote chori” issue had among the electorate.
About half the respondents said that local issues — such as that of expelling Bangladeshi illegals in Assam, or Hindutva in Uttar Pradesh, motivated the voters more.
But most also claimed that the issue had gained currency.
“We are here because people are asking us about this; people are worried about these fake voters,” Rajesh, a coffee planter from Kodagu, Karnataka, said.
The Congress claims to have almost 6 crore signatures on its petition against
“vote chori”.
