Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused the NDA alliance of attempting to manipulate electoral rolls in Bihar, drawing parallels to what he called “vote theft” during the recent Maharashtra Assembly elections.
Speaking at the Bihar Bandh rally in Patna, Gandhi warned that the ruling alliance is trying to replicate in Bihar the alleged electoral irregularities observed in Maharashtra.
“The way votes were stolen in Maharashtra, the same attempt is being made in Bihar,” he declared.
Gandhi cited data discrepancies between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Maharashtra, claiming that nearly one crore new voters were added between the two elections, and voter turnout increased by 10 percent — with all gains allegedly favoring the BJP.
“When we analyzed the data, we found that in every constituency where voter numbers went up, the BJP won. All new votes went to BJP. This is not a coincidence, it’s manipulation,” he said.
He further accused the Election Commission of refusing to share critical information, including the voter list and booth videography from Maharashtra, alleging deliberate attempts to hide irregularities.
“Despite repeated requests, the Commission remained silent. They even changed videography rules to hide the truth,” Gandhi added.
Addressing the crowd, Gandhi invoked Bihar’s legacy of fighting for the Constitution.
“We’ve come to Bihar, where people have given their lives for the Constitution. But now the rights of the poor are being snatched away. This is Bihar — the people here will not tolerate such theft,” he said.
He also pointed out alleged voter inflation in urban pockets and simultaneous deletion of poor voters.
“In some buildings, 4,000 to 5,000 voters were registered. Meanwhile, names of poor voters were being struck off the list,” Gandhi alleged.
Gandhi was joined by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and other senior leaders of the INDIA bloc, including CPI General Secretary D. Raja, CPI-ML leader Dipankar Bhattacharya, Bihar Congress President Rajesh Ram, Kanhaiya Kumar, and Sanjay Yadav.
The Bihar Bandh was organized to protest the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls ahead of the state’s upcoming Assembly elections — a move the opposition has termed a politically motivated exercise to suppress the votes of the poor and marginalized.