Leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar was an extension of the “Maharashtra model” of rigging the polls in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led coalition. The Congress leader was taking part in the Bihar bandh supported by the Opposition to protest the Election Commission of India (ECI)’s controversial move.
Addressing Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc workers during a protest march to the EC’s office in Patna, Gandhi alleged: “Maharashtra assembly elections were rigged to favour the BJP and the NDA. They want to repeat it in Bihar, which we will not allow.”
The former Congress president has been targeting ECI since the November 2024 Maharashtra polls, alleging “bogus voters” were added in electoral rolls in the western state. The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance had swept the Maharashtra assembly polls, just months after facing defeat in the state during the Lok Sabha polls last summer.
He claimed that the SIR in Bihar was an extension of the “Maharashtra model” of fudging electoral rolls, adding the exercise would “steal not just people’s right to vote but their entire future.”
“They want to replicate the Maharashtra model elsewhere. This time they may try to delete the names of many voters. But they must know this is Bihar. People here can see through the designs,” Gandhi said.
{{/usCountry}}“They want to replicate the Maharashtra model elsewhere. This time they may try to delete the names of many voters. But they must know this is Bihar. People here can see through the designs,” Gandhi said.
{{/usCountry}}Terming the SIR exercise a “mockery of democracy”, the former Congress president accused ECI, which he alleged comprised of persons nominated by the BJP, of serving the ruling party rather than the people.
The Congress leader emphasised the importance of protecting the voting rights of Bihar’s 78.9 million voters, including over 30 million migrants. The opposition INDIA bloc has labelled the SIR in Bihar as a conspiracy to disenfranchise marginalised communities, including Dalits, Mahadalits, poor and migrant workers.
Gandhi was accompanied by leaders of alliance partners, including Tejashwi Yadav, the leader of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and Dipankar Bhattacharya, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) Liberation, or CPI(ML).
Addressing the gathering, the RJD leader alleged that EC has become a part of a political party, calling it a “Godi Aayog”. “Today, the Bihar Bandh has been called to address how ECI has become ‘Godi Aayog’. NDA is losing, so they are using the ECI. Preparations have been going on to remove the names of Bihar’s poor people from the voter list,” Yadav, who is the leader of opposition in the state assembly, said.
Echoing the sentiment, Bhattacharya described the ongoing SIR as “votebandi”.
“Voters whose names were not there in the 2003 voter list will have to prove that they are citizens. And the conditions that have been set by the EC make it very difficult for the people of Bihar. It’s votebandi,” the CPI(ML) leader said.
Earlier, the INDIA bloc leaders assembled at the Income Tax roundabout and led a march to the Shaheed Smarak near the Bihar legislature. The leaders initially marched on foot, but due to the swelling crowd of supporters and party workers, they continued the rally in an open vehicle, waiving their respective party’s flags. The Patna police stopped them near the Sachivalaya police station by barricading the road leading to the EC’s office.
The Bihar Bandh, supported by the state’s opposition bloc, comprising the RJD, Congress, CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML) Liberation, and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), aimed to galvanise public sentiment against the NDA government and ECI ahead of the Bihar assembly elections, which are likely to be held in October-November this year. The Opposition leaders also used the bandh to amplify their narrative of a deteriorating law-and-order situation in Bihar, with both Gandhi and Yadav citing the recent murder of businessman Gopal Khemka to label the state as “India’s crime capital” under the Nitish Kumar’s rule.
Meanwhile, the Bihar bandh evoked mixed response in the state. Supporters and workers of the opposition parties burnt tyres and blocked roads in Patna, while long-distance trains, including Shramjeevi Express and Bibhuti Express, were stopped at multiple places. Business establishments, educational and financial institutions remained closed. Processions were also carried out against the electoral roll revision in several places in the state.
Additional director general (law and order) Pankaj Darad said all preventive measures were taken to maintain law and order during the bandh. “There were no major untoward incidents.”
On June 24, ECI announced the revision, emphasising the need to clean the electoral roll due to rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, increasing numbers of first-time voters, non-reporting of deaths, and the inclusion of names of undocumented foreigners. ECI has said an electoral roll revision was last held in Bihar in 2003, which covered nearly 50 million people. It has underlined that it has a constitutional obligation to ensure that only citizens are on it. ECI instructed the electoral registration officers to treat the 2003 electoral roll as “probative evidence of eligibility, including presumption of citizenship unless they receive any other input otherwise.”
The Supreme Court will on Thursday take up petitions challenging the revision. The petitioners have raised concerns about the manner and timing of the ECI in undertaking the exercise, giving 30 days for voters to provide proof of their citizenship based on a set of 11 documents, which do not include readily available ones such as Aadhaar, ECI photo identity card, or ration card.
Reacting to the opposition’s protest, the BJP lashed out at the INDIA bloc for holding a bandh in the state, with senior party leader and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad questioning whether the opposition parties were trying to pressure the judiciary by such tactics.
“All these leaders have approached the Supreme Court, which is their right, and when the hearing is scheduled for tomorrow, why are they engaging in street politics today to exert pressure?” Prasad told reporters in Delhi.
“Is it an attempt to pressure the judiciary?” he said. “These people must either trust the judiciary or stick to the streets.”
Responding to allegations against EC, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla accused Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav of undermining constitutional institutions to shield their families and political interests.
“Look at how Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav are today accusing the Election Commission of theft; one belongs to a ‘chaara chor party’ and the other to a ‘zameen chor party’. Both are targeting the Election Commission just to save themselves and their families from political defeat. These are constitutional institutions,” he was quoted as saying by ANI.