Vote chori anti-national act, EC colluding with BJP: Rahul Gandhi

BJP defends EVMs, cites Rajiv Gandhi's pilot project, accuses Opposition of double standards

In his intervention in the Lok Sabha (LS) during the debate on “electoral reforms”, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of colluding with the Election Commission of India (ECI) to perpetrate the “biggest anti-national act” by resorting to “vote chori (theft)”, which he said is destroying the idea of modern democratic India. 

The LS on Tuesday took up the discussion on “electoral reforms”, with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance fielding speakers from its allies, such as the Telugu Desam Party and Janata Dal (United), who accused the Opposition of maintaining “double standards” on the issue of alleged “vote chori”. They said the Opposition rakes up the issue of tampering with electronic voting machines (EVMs) only after electoral defeats. 

BJP’s Nishikant Dubey, speaking immediately after Gandhi concluded his speech, said EVMs were introduced in the country by Gandhi’s father, the late Rajiv Gandhi, during a pilot project in 1987. He alleged that the Congress, when in government, rewarded those at the helm of the poll body.

 

“The country's first Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sukumar Sen was appointed as Sudan’s governor. V S Ramadevi (also a CEC) was later appointed as Himachal Pradesh’s governor. T N Seshan was made a poll candidate against the BJP from Ahmedabad, and M S Gill remained a Cabinet minister for 10 years after his retirement,” Dubey said. 

Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Manish Tewari, who initiated the discussion in the LS, argued that the ECI has no legal basis to conduct the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). He suggested mandating a 100 per cent counting of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail slips or reverting to paper ballots.

 

Tewari also called for disallowing direct cash transfers to people ahead of polls and adding two members — the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha (RS) and the Chief Justice of India (CJI) — to the existing three-member panel that selects the CEC and the two Election Commissioners (ECs).

 

On SIR, Tewari said, “I am saying with a lot of responsibility that legally, the ECI has no right to conduct SIR.” Reading from laws enacted by Parliament, he claimed there is no provision for SIR in the Constitution or in law. “This is just a right of the ECI: if there is anything wrong with the electoral roll of a constituency, it can correct it for reasons that need to be recorded in writing and made public. Only then can you conduct SIR; you cannot conduct SIR for the whole of Bihar, or the whole of Kerala, or the whole of West Bengal,” the Congress leader said. He added that it is unfortunate that this basic question — whether the ECI has the right to conduct SIR — was not deliberated in the courts.

 

In his speech, Gandhi asked why the CJI was removed from the selection panel for the appointment of the CEC and ECs. “Why are Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah so keen on who exactly the EC is going to be?” he asked.

 

“No PM in the history of India has done this: in December 2023, this government changed the law to ensure no EC is punished for any action they take while in office,” he said. “Why did the PM and the home minister give this gift of immunity?” Gandhi asked. He added that when the Opposition comes to power, it would change the law “retroactively”, warning: “We are going to find you. They (the ECs) are under the impression that this law will allow them to get away, but that is not the case, as we will change the law and do it retroactively.”

 

Gandhi questioned why the law was changed to allow the destruction of CCTV footage after 45 days. He also demanded that the EC provide political parties with machine-readable voter lists a month before polling, and grant access to inspect the architecture of EVMs.

 

He alleged that the government’s measures had consequences, including election campaigns tailored for the PM and a “Brazilian woman” appearing 22 times on the voters’ list of Haryana. “The election of Haryana was stolen and theft was ensured by the ECI,” he said. “The biggest anti-national act you can commit is vote chori. When you destroy the vote, you destroy the fabric of this country, modern India, and the idea of India. Those across the aisle are committing an anti-national act,” Gandhi said, gesturing towards the treasury benches.

 

Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee questioned SIR. “Why should an elector, whose name was on the 2024 voter list, be told that he is not an elector because his name was not there in 2002?” Banerjee also criticised the ECI’s use of digital applications to verify family relationships in voter lists. He argued that the law does not define ‘relative’ in the rigid manner being applied. He claimed that the excessive workload given to booth-level officers in West Bengal led to a series of tragedies. “In West Bengal, 20 persons committed suicide, five fell critically ill, 19 persons died, and three attempted suicide,” Banerjee said.

 

Shiv Sena leader Shrikant Shinde suggested lowering the minimum age to contest LS and Assembly elections from 25 to 18 years and allowing remote voting for migrant voters.

 

The RS took up a debate on 150 years of Vande Mataram, with Shah criticising the Opposition for linking the debate on the national song with the upcoming West Bengal elections. Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge said the true homage to Bharat Mata will only come when Parliament discusses and resolves the issues of common people, accusing Modi of holding a discussion on Vande Mataram with Bengal elections in mind.