Rahul Targets CEC Over SIR, BJP Denies Vote Chori Charge

New Delhi:Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday stepped up his attack on Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, demanding his resignation, even as the BJP rejected his “vote chori” allegations as “baseless”.

Opposition parties are also preparing to move notices in Parliament seeking Kumar’s removal, with the Congress reaching out to other parties on the issue and announcing a series of protests.

At a press conference at Indira Bhawan, Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and the CEC of “destroying” the vote and alleged that manipulation of electoral rolls amounted to an attack on the Constitution and democratic institutions.

“We are not going to let democracy be destroyed and sit silent. Those responsible will be punished,” Gandhi said.

Hitting back, BJP national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Sudhanshu Trivedi said Gandhi was trying to create “hype” over a media report about differences within the Election Commission because of his frustration over the Congress’ electoral setbacks.

Trivedi questioned the authenticity of the report and said there was no evidence to suggest that decisions in the Election Commission had been taken by a majority rather than unanimously. “All decisions were taken unanimously. There is no evidence that the decisions were taken by majority,” he said.

He also questioned the sources of Gandhi’s presentation and called him a “prapanch shiromani (master manipulator)”. Trivedi alleged that Gandhi was “disconnected from the grassroots” and accused him of repeatedly citing “baseless facts”.

The political confrontation follows a media report about objections reportedly raised by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi over decisions relating to voter registration, deletion and restoration of names and the conduct of the SIR exercise.

The Congress has called a meeting of its working committee on Tuesday to chalk out its strategy, followed by an I.N.D.I.A. bloc meeting in early October. It has announced state-level protest marches on Friday and district-level protests on Monday.

Five Left parties — CPM, CPI, CPI(ML)-Liberation, Revolutionary Socialist Party and All India Forward Bloc — have announced nationwide protests from September 26 to October 2, demanding Kumar’s removal and an immediate halt to the SIR exercise. They also sought restoration of voting rights to those they alleged had been wrongfully excluded from electoral rolls.

Separately, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) launched an “Election Commission Thik Karo” campaign and demanded Kumar’s resignation within 48 hours. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke threatened nationwide protests and an indefinite sit-in in Delhi if the demand was not met.