The Congress may have been dealt a bruising defeat in the Bihar Assembly elections but the part is not giving up on its claims of electoral malpractices aka vote chori (theft).

The opposition party on Tuesday kept up its offensive against the Election Commission, insisting that the poll body must urgently show it is not working under the “shadow” of the BJP.

At a review meeting in New Delhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused the ruling party at the Centre of seeking to “weaponise” the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls for “vote chori”.

He chaired talks with key office bearers from 12 states and Union Territories where the SIR exercise is under way. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and All India Congress Committee general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal also joined the consultations with state unit presidents, Congress legislature party leaders and secretaries.

Kharge later posted on X (formerly Twitter) that the party had held a “comprehensive strategy review” to safeguard the integrity of electoral rolls.

At a moment when public trust in institutions was already strained, he claimed, the poll panel’s conduct during the SIR process had been “deeply disappointing”.

“It must immediately demonstrate that it is not operating under the BJP’s shadow and it remembers its constitutional oath and allegiance to the people of India, not to any ruling party,” Kharge said.

He added that if the Election Commission chose to “look the other way”, such inaction would amount to “complicity of silence”.

The Congress chief said party workers — from booth-level officers to district, city and block presidents — would stay “relentlessly vigilant” against any attempt to delete genuine voters or add fake ones.

The party, he said, would not allow democratic safeguards to be “eroded by partisan misuse of institutions”.

Venugopal said: “While purification of electoral rolls is an undeniably necessary objective, it must be carried out in a bonafide manner. The ECI’s conduct thus far has been to further the BJP’s Vote Chori agenda, setting aside its Constitutional obligation of impartiality.

“We will relentlessly fight against their attempts to manipulate voter rolls through unfair deletions or the insertion of bogus voters to create space for the BJP to carry out its nefarious activities.

“It is our democracy at stake, at we will stand up to every attempt - big or small - that threatens our Constitutional framework,” he added.

The sharp remarks came a day after the EC said that more than 50 crore of the nearly 51 crore electors across nine states and three Union Territories had received enumeration forms during Phase II of the SIR, which began on 4 November and runs till 4 December.

Overall, 50.11 crore forms — or 98.32 per cent of the targeted 50.99 crore electors — had been distributed, the commission said.

The exercise covers Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep. Several of these regions, including Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and West Bengal, will vote in 2026.

On Tuesday, Kerala moved the Supreme Court, challenging the SIR process in the state. The SIR, conducted with local body elections, will derail the polls by creating an administrative impasse, the souther state contended. It has argued that the manner of revision is not conducive to a fair democratic process.

The Congress has framed its Bihar loss — where the NDA swept 202 seats to the Mahagathbandhan’s 35 — within its broader charge of “vote chori”.

Last week, Rahul described the results as “surprising”, alleged that the contest was unfair from the outset and said the INDIA bloc would conduct a detailed review. The party has claimed the outcome reflects “vote chori on a gigantic scale”, accusing the prime minister, the home minister and the Election Commission of facilitating it.

The Election Commission has steadfastly denied all allegations.