New Delhi: The BJP has escalated its attack on the opposition, alleging that leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav secured their Lok Sabha seats through “vote chori” and demanding their resignations. This comes after the Congress launched its own campaign against alleged electoral manipulation.
On Wednesday, former Union Minister Anurag Thakur held a press conference at the BJP headquarters, where he used a slideshow presentation to highlight what he called “irregularities” in the electoral rolls. He claimed that the voter registration process was flawed in several key constituencies, including:
- Rae Bareli and Wayanad, the seats of Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
- Diamond Harbour, represented by TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee.
- Kannauj, the seat of SP’s Akhilesh Yadav.
Thakur also extended his accusations to the Kolathur assembly seat, represented by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, and the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, held by SP’s Dimple Yadav, demanding their resignations as well.
The BJP leader accused the opposition parties of creating a “vicious propaganda” against the Election Commission and its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. He suggested that their resistance to the revision was an effort to protect their “vote bank of illegal Bangladeshi infiltration” and other “intruders.” Using a Hindi proverb, Thakur stated, “Seeing this ‘shor’ (hue and cry) being made by the opposition, it now seems that ‘chor machaye shor’,” implying that those who are guilty are now crying foul.
The BJP’s allegations are a direct response to a recent campaign by the Congress. On Tuesday, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi held a press conference citing data from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to claim that over 1 lakh votes were “stolen” in the Mahadevapura assembly segment in Karnataka. He detailed five types of alleged manipulation, including duplicate and fake voters. This was followed by a protest march by opposition leaders to the Election Commission’s headquarters, where they were briefly detained.
On Wednesday, the Congress released a new video to further its “vote chori” campaign, with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge urging people to “save constitutional institutions from the clutches of the BJP.” Rahul Gandhi also shared the video, tweeting, “Aapke vote ki chori aapke adhikar ki chori, aapki pehchaan ki chori hai” (The theft of your vote is the theft of your right, the theft of your identity).