The Opposition INDIA bloc MPs on Tuesday staged a protest at the Parliament complex with white T-shirts bearing the slogan “Minta Devi 124 Not Out.”
Who is Minta Devi?
Minta Devi, according to the Election Commission data cited by Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, is a 124-year-old first-time voter registered in Bihar’s Daraundha Assembly seat under Siwan Lok Sabha at the Kanya Utkramit Madhya Vidyalaya in Arjaanipur.
Minta Devi’s name surfaced soon after the Election Commission completed its special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in the poll-bound state amid Rahul’s presentation of what he calls evidence on voter list manipulation and fraud.
“We proudly nominate Minta Devi for the Guinness World Record: the youngest looking oldest human in India – courtesy the several miracles of ECI,” wrote Congress leader Pawan Khera on his X (formerly Twitter) handle.
In May this year, the BBC reported Ethel Caterham, who lives in a care home at Surrey’s Lightwater, as the oldest living person after the death of Brazilian nun Sister Inah Canaborro Lucas. She was 116.
Caterham will be celebrating her 116th birthday on August 21. Minta Devi’s date of birth is listed as July 15, 1900.
“The Election Commission has done a great service to humankind. They discovered the oldest living human, Minta Devi, whose age is listed as 124 years in the Bihar SIR. The mega voter fraud done by the EC can never be allowed. INDIA will keep protesting until it is stopped,” said Congress MP K.C. Venugopal.
The Opposition’s T-shirt protest came a day after the many parliamentarians were stopped from marching to the Election Commission of India’s office at Nirvachan Sadan in Delhi.
“This isn’t just a clerical error- it’s proof of mega voter fraud. INDIA will keep protesting until this is stopped,” said Congress MP Manickam Tagore.
At the Parliament protest asked about Minta Devi, Rahul replied: “Picture abhi baaki hai (There is more to come).”
NDTV reporters, however, claimed to have traced Minta Devi in Bihar and said she had incorrectly written 1900 instead of 1990 as year of birth in her form. There was no clarification, however, on how such errors creep into a draft roll after an exercise meant to clean up the voters’; lists.
