Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Thursday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar were collectively "destroying democracy" through the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and accused them of committing "treason".
Gandhi reiterated his demand that Kumar resign and become an "approver", and called for an investigation against Modi and Shah.
The Congress leader's remarks came in response to a post on X which claimed that Form 7 applications already printed with Muslim voters’ details have now been reported in Belagavi, with BLOs saying they were pressured to sign forms seeking deletion of names of people they knew well, including the Booth Level Agent himself.
In his post in Hindi on X, Gandhi said, "The entire country is furious about vote chori but still, see the shamelessness of the BJP-EC as they openly continue doing the same things. In Belagavi in Karnataka, there was a plot underway to erase the names of nearly 15,000 voters in one fell swoop."
He claimed there was a flood of Form 7 applications seeking deletion of names from the voter list in just three days -- September 22, 23, and 24.
"And who was targeted? Muslims, SC, ST, and OBC. Because most of these people vote against the BJP," Gandhi said.
"I had already exposed this method of vote chori -- votes are deleted through software in a centralised manner. Select people are targeted as the BJP and EC officials collude to fill out Form 7 in bulk through automated means -- and in the blink of an eye, millions vanish from the voter list. And all of this is controlled from the top," the former Congress chief said.
Gandhi claimed that Karnataka Congress leaders were at the state CEO's office, demanding an FIR against the culprits, but the CEO was refusing to take action.
"In this way, Modi, Shah, and Gyanesh are collectively destroying democracy through the SIR. This is treason. That's why I'm saying Gyanesh Kumar should resign and become an approver, and there should be an investigation against Modi and Shah," Gandhi said.
His remarks come a day after the opposition INDIA bloc announced joint "save democracy" marches in all districts and five major rallies, demanded that future polls be held with ballot paper and appealed to the Supreme Court to expedite cases of SIR and electoral "malpractices".
At a meeting attended by leaders of as many as 19 political parties that lasted over three-and-a-half hours, it was decided that all opposition MPs will march to the Election Commission on October 6 and the leaders would meet President Droupadi Mumu to highlight the issues related to alleged irregularities in voter list revision.
The opposition grouping discussed the demand for Kumar's resignation and said they will not relent till he is ousted.
The INDIA bloc meeting came days after The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi objected on record at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders on the SIR (Special Intensive Revision) that they said were issued without their knowledge or recommendation.
Under fire over the red flags raised by two of its commissioners over the SIR process, the EC has asserted that differing views and observations are a normal part of deliberations in any institution and all its orders carry full legal sanction and follow established statutory procedures.
(With inputs from PTI)