

HYDERABAD: The Youth Congress members staged a protest at Gandhi Bhavan on Monday, alleging systematic “vote theft” across the country and that the actions of the NDA government and the Election Commission of India (ECI) were detrimental to democratic principles.
They were joined in their protest by a host of Congress leaders, including TPCC chief B Mahesh Kumar Goud and Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar, as well as Youth Congress national head Uday Bhanu Chib and Rajya Sabha member Anil Kumar Yadav.
Speaking on the occasion, Mahesh Goud alleged that the NDA’s victory in Bihar was “achieved through unfair means”.
He said the Congress had been raising the issue of voter deletions and manipulation for quite some time now, and warned that similar patterns could emerge in Telangana “under the guise of Special Intensive Revision (SIR)”.
The TPCC chief credited Rahul Gandhi for “relentlessly exposing vote theft” and said democratic values must be defended if the nation’s future is to remain secure. “Vote theft tears through the Constitution itself,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ponnam Prabhakar said that the saffron party was using multiple methods to delete and manipulate votes to retain power.
He criticised the ECI, alleging that it was functioning like a “front organisation” of the BJP.
The Congress, with its legacy of the freedom struggle, had the responsibility to protect democracy, he added.
The Youth Congress also announced that a state-wide signature campaign against vote theft was launched on Monday.