Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday launched a sharp attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI), accusing it of “hatching a conspiracy” to rig elections in Bihar ahead of the upcoming assembly polls. Speaking at the Samvidhan Bachao Samavesh rally in Bhubaneswar, Gandhi alleged that the poll body is functioning as a “wing of the BJP” and not as an independent institution.
“Just like ‘chunav chori’ (election theft) was done in Maharashtra, the same is now being attempted in Bihar. The ECI has become a part of the BJP machinery,” Gandhi claimed.
He further stated that during the Maharashtra elections, over one crore new voters were added without proper verification, and the same tactic is allegedly being repeated in Bihar. “We repeatedly asked the EC for voter lists and videography evidence, but they refused to share. This is a direct attempt to hijack democracy,” he said.
Gandhi reiterated his support for the INDIA bloc’s opposition to the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and vowed to resist what he called an orchestrated attempt at “election theft” by the BJP with the help of the ECI.
In a broader attack, Gandhi also accused the Odisha government of looting the state’s resources at the expense of the poor. “Whether it was the previous BJD government or now under BJP, Odisha’s wealth is being snatched from its people—Dalits, tribals, backward classes, farmers, and workers—and handed over to a handful of billionaires,” he said.
He also stirred controversy by alleging that during the annual Jagannath Rath Yatra, the sacred chariots were halted for industrialist Gautam Adani and his family. “Adani runs Odisha government; Adani runs Narendra Modi. The fact that the Rath Yatra chariots were stopped for Adani says everything about who’s in control here,” he claimed.
Gandhi concluded by urging Congress workers and the people of Odisha to rise and resist what he described as a battle between the powerful few and the disenfranchised many.