Akhilesh Yadav sounds UP poll bugle at INDIA bloc rally, calls it next battle against BJP

They demanded CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s removal, while warning that the opposition would continue its fight to protect voting rights and democracy.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday joined the Opposition leaders in launching scathing attacks at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during the Ramlila Maidan rally in New Delhi against the alleged vote theft and irregularities in the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls, as he turned his offensive into a fervent poll speech ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections due next year, and hailed his party’s victory in the Varanasi MLC elections and warned of ousting the BJP from the state.

Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav addresses the INDIA bloc's mega rally at Ramlila Maidan. (X/@samajwadiparty)

“Those who once boasted about making India a ‘Vishwaguru’ are now busy manipulating the electoral rolls. Akhilesh added that the people are set to save democracy, and this movement will begin in Uttar Pradesh,” he said.

Likening the gathering to the “Haldighati of democracy”, referring to the engagement between the Mewar kingdom and the Mughal empire in 1576, Yadav said the public support reflects the possibility of change. “Today, Ramlila Maidan has turned into the Haldighati of democracy...People of UP know how to cordially invite someone but they know better how to send someone off. In the last Lok Sabha election, they were sent off partially. But next year they will face such an exit that they won’t be able to come back,” Yadav said, referring to the BJP’s 33 seats as against 62 in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from the state.

Spearheaded by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, the rally was participated by opposition leaders across party lines, including former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, CPI(M) general secretary MA Baby, CPI general secretary D Raja, and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, among others.

Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that the democracy will survive “only if Modi goes” and called for the prime minister’s ouster.

He accused the BJP-led governments in the Centre and states of choosing themselves rather than being elected by the people.

“Who votes for them? They choose themselves. The public does not elect them. The current central government, as well as the governments in Maharashtra, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, are all governments of vote theft. We must remove these thieves,” Kharge said, addressing the rally.

Congress’s general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal later said: “The people of India want to send a message to (PM) Narendra Modi and (home minister) Amit Shah about the way they are destroying the democracy of this country. The people of India have given a clear message to Modi and Shah today: ‘your days are over’.”

The rally followed an unprecedented public impeachment at a mock-Parliament organised by the INDIA bloc at Kharge’s Rajaji Marg residence in New Delhi. Following the exercise, 19 Opposition parties unanimously adopted a resolution to remove CEC Kumar, accusing him of deleting votes to steal elections and carrying out compromised SIR of electoral rolls, at the behest of the BJP, in a six-point charge against him. They also demanded that CEC Kumar be tried in court for treason.

On Sunday, Baby demanded prosecution against CEC Kumar for “vote theft”. He also called Modi a “king of lies”. “Mahatma Gandhi followed the path of truth during the freedom struggle. But, Narendra Modi is the king of lies…We have to collectively move forward in this struggle to end vote theft,” he said.

The TMC chief accused the BJP of looting West Bengal through SIR and vowed to continue fighting against the exercise. “Bengal is the victim of the circumstances of this SIR. We will not give up. We will give our lives, we will fight, but we will not surrender. They looted our Bengal. We will save democracy and bring it back. We will take revenge through politics. We will take revenge through democracy. We will fight,” Banerjee said.

The Opposition has been leading protests against the CEC and has met President Droupadi Murmu on October 9, demanding his removal and the repeal of the 2023 law that provides immunity to the CEC and Election Commissioners. It has accused the CEC of the “unilateral and arbitrary exercise of the collective powers” during the ongoing revision of electoral rolls.

On Sunday, Abdullah questioned the claim that most electors were deleted for them being infiltrators, asking whether Hindu voters allegedly removed from the rolls in Uttar Pradesh were also “Pakistanis”. “Over one crore Hindus have been removed in UP. Are they also Pakistanis? How long will you give this excuse?” he asked, accusing the poll body of “vote chori”. “This is Ambedkar’s Constitution. This is India’s Constitution. We are all equal, and everyone has an equal vote. Jammu and Kashmir was, is and will remain a part of India. They will not be able to separate it.”

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav described the fight against the alleged vote theft as a battle between the country’s voters and “cheaters”.

“Prime Minister Modi, you have to choose between the country and Gyanu; the whole country is watching. This fight is between the country’s voters and its cheaters,” Yadav said.

Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti warned the Constitution was being hollowed out. Addressing the rally, she said: “The very Constitution that has given you the vote to change the government, to bring down the government, and to form a new government, they want to snatch that right away from you. We, the people of Jammu and Kashmir, have been ruined. In 2019, they destroyed the Constitution there. But now you must save yourselves, lest they turn the entire country into Jammu and Kashmir. We are with you. Standing shoulder to shoulder, we are with you in your struggle.”

CPI(ML) chief Dipankar Bhattacharya said, “For the past one month, we launched the agitation, Vote Chor Gaddi Chore. Now we have come to the Ramlila ground. The whole country is a tool to snatch away voting rights from the people.”