Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Tejashwi Yadav led the ‘Bihar Bandh’ protest in Patna on Wednesday, sharply criticising the Election Commission of India for what they alleged was a politically motivated voter list revision designed to disenfranchise the poor.
Tejashwi Yadav labelled the ECI as a “Godi Aayog”, accusing it of working at the behest of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. “Today, the Bihar Bandh has been called to address how the Election Commission has become 'Godi Aayog'. NDA is losing, so they are using the Election Commission,” Yadav said at the rally.
He alleged a “conspiracy” was underway to delete the names of crores of economically marginalised voters. “Preparations have been going on to remove the names of Bihar's poor people from the voter list under the directions of Modi ji, Amit Shah and Nitish Kumar ji,” he said.
“This is a conspiracy to cut off the votes of almost crores of voters, who belong to the poor community, who are standing at the bottom steps of society like the Dalits, backwards class, or extremely backwards class,” he added, further alleging a planned removal of “4.5 crore people who migrate to other states to earn a living.”
Tejashwi thanked allies from the INDIA bloc for their solidarity. “We want to thank everyone in Mahagathbandhan, especially Rahul Ji, standing shoulder to shoulder with us revolutionaries in today's Bihar Bandh,” he said.
Also present at the protest were CPI General Secretary D Raja, CPI (ML) Liberation leader Dipankar Bhattacharya, Bihar Congress President Rajesh Ram, Kanhaiya Kumar, and Sanjay Yadav. Pappu Yadav, Independent MP from Purnea, joined the protest at the Sachiwalay Halt railway station, chanting “Chunav Aayog hosh mein aao” (Election Commission, come to your senses).
Also read: Grand alliance to protest voter list revision in Bihar today
D Raja said the central government’s economic and electoral agenda served only the rich. “The Modi-led central government supports businessmen like Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani over poor people,” he alleged.
Sanjay Yadav, speaking on behalf of the RJD, said the revision of electoral rolls was “completely non-transparent and misleading,” adding, “We are asking questions to the Election Commission, but answers will come from the BJP. It shows the Election Commission has become a unit of BJP.”
Kanhaiya Kumar said, “We are on the streets to protect democracy because it is said that if streets become silent, the parliament goes astray.”
The Election Commission, in response, said the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise was progressing smoothly. As of July 8, it had collected 3.70 crore Enumeration Forms, or 46.95 per cent of the state’s 7.90 crore electors, within 14 days of launching the SIR on June 24.
The ECI maintained that the enumeration process is likely to be completed before the scheduled deadline.
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