PATNA: A day after the Chief Election Commissioner asked him to either submit an affidavit on his vote theft allegation or apologise within a week, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said neither he nor RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav nor Bihar is scared of any such threat.
Speaking on the second day of his ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’ in Aurangabad-Gaya, Gandhi said, “I am not scared of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah or the Election Commission. I will keep revealing the truth of vote theft.” He added, “We will ensure that the voting rights of people, especially the poor, don’t get harmed. What I commit, I do it at all costs.”
Gandhi met voters whose names were deleted during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Sunil Oraon, a landless worker in Aurangabad, said officials asked for land ownership papers, which he did not have. “I have no land in my name.
How can I hand over papers of land? In that case, I will lose my right to vote,” he said, adding that he had voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Another daily wage worker said he could not provide land documents as he worked on others’ land. Yet another labourer alleged that names of only poor people were erased from the electoral rolls.
Tejashwi Yadav, present with Gandhi, accused the Election Commission of asking poor people for documents they do not possess. Ranju Devi from Chasla village said six members of her family were removed from the electoral rolls despite voting multiple times in past elections.
Gandhi later wrote on his WhatsApp channel: “The SIR is a new weapon for vote theft. These people had cast their votes in 2024, but by the time of the Bihar assembly polls, their identity was erased from the democracy of India.”
The ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’, launched from Sasaram on Sunday, will cover 25 districts and conclude on September 1 at Gandhi Maidan in Patna.