The Congress appears to have launched a systematic campaign against the Election Commission of India to malign its credibility. There appears to be a definite design. By questioning the fairness of the ECI, the Congress appears to be creating a ground for future that in case of any adverse results, it can claim itself having been vindicated and attribute its defeat, in case it loses, to the bias of the ECI.
This time the Congress has taken on the ECI on the issue of ‘Special Intensive Revision’ (SIR) in Bihar ahead of the Assembly elections there. The party claims that this is a ploy of the BJP being executed by the ECI to “disenfranchise” two crore voters belonging to the Dalit and the minority communities in Bihar.
The party has been arguing that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance won the Maharashtra Assembly elections by manipulating the electoral rolls. The party is not prepared to accept that the BJP, which fared badly in the 2024 General Elections in Maharashtra, romped home with an emphatic victory within a few months in the Assembly elections. The party has been claiming that a whopping number of 70 lakh fresh voters were added within these few months to the electoral rolls by the BJP, which led to its victory.
But it has not happened for the first time that the Parliament and the Assembly election results have been contrary to each other even after being held within a short span of time. It does not suggest electoral manipulation. It happened in 2013 when BJP lost Rajasthan Assembly elections but completely swept the Parliamentary elections in 2014 in the state. It happened twice in Delhi in 2015 and 2019 that even after drawing a complete blank in the Parliament, the Aam Aadmi Party completely swept the Assembly elections. Parliamentary and Assembly election results, at times, do go differently.
Earlier, the Congress had been consistently and continuously insisting about the manipulation of the electronic voting machines. It ran a sustained campaign for a long time against the EVMs citing the example of some western democracies, which are still using the paper ballots. But there was discord among its allies like the National Conference, which disagreed with the theory of EVM manipulations. JK Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, whose National Conference is part of the INDIA bloc, has said on several occasions that the Congress cannot have double standards on the EVMs by accepting the victory and rejecting the defeat and attributing it to the machine manipulations.
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Like many other such issues, the Congress now appears to have completely abandoned the idea of EVM manipulations. The party has now switched over the issue of the “manipulation” of the electoral rolls by the BJP. Here again its stance is contradictory.
While it claims that the BJP managed to add 70 lakh votes in the rolls within a short span of few months in Maharashtra, in Bihar it is claiming that the BJP wants to delete about “two crore voters” from the electoral rolls. These are completely two contrary positions. In Maharashtra, the Congress has been accusing the BJP of adding 70 lakh extra votes, which it suggests were fake, and in Bihar it has been claiming that the BJP wants to drop 2 crore votes.
Take the case of Maharashtra. The Congress claims that 70 lakh extra votes were added within a short span of few months between the General Elections and the Assembly elections. It argues that all those 70 lakh fresh voters voted and wherever the “extra votes” were added, the BJP won. On the face of it, the argument sounds valid. But there are other practical issues involved. Even if the BJP got 70 lakh fresh votes made, all of them have to be actual voters. Votes cannot be cast online. One has to visit the polling booth and cast his/ her vote after the identity is thoroughly verified by polling agents of different political parties. If the BJP added 70 lakh new voters, there must have been 70 lakh eligible people to be voters. And every eligible person is entitled to vote. What is wrong about that?
Evidently, the Congress leaders know that. But they have managed to build up a narrative against the Election Commission of India making it look like a collaborator in facilitating BJP’s consecutive victories. Now the BJP has won three General Elections. There have been so many chief election commissioners and election commissioners during this period. By accusing the ECI of bias, it has been maligning every election commissioner who held the office during this period.
Coming to the Bihar ‘Special Intensive Revision’, the Congress is now taking a position quite different from its Maharashtra stand. This time the Congress has launched a campaign alleging that the ECI wants to “disenfranchise” about two crore voters. The party has already identified those whom it believes the ECI will disenfranchise. They include the Dalits, the marginalised and minorities, who fit in Rahul Gandhi’s theory of the “90 per cent Indians” being denied every opportunity.
The SIR appears to be a well-intentioned exercise to bring transparency in elections. What is wrong in ensuring the foolproof identity of a voter? The Congress has come with the argument that it will not be possible to complete the process within a short period. Besides, it has been arguing that the marginalised, the Dalits and the minorities will not be able to furnish the proofs the ECI has made mandatory like the birth certificates issued as far back as in 2003. Why should the Congress assume that people do not possess their birth certificates? May be the ECI has initiated the process a little late, but that does not mean its intentions of enforcing transparency should be questioned.
But the Congress appears to have other intentions - question the credibility and fairness of the ECI well in advance so that if the results are not along the expected lines, feel vindicated and tell people, “We had already told you,” the system is biased.
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