Rahul has tea with ‘dead voters' from Bihar, ‘thanks EC' for experience

Indian Express

3 days ago

Ahead of his 'Vote Adhikar Yatra' in Bihar on August 17, Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi Wednesday said he had a 'unique experience to have tea with dead people' and 'thanked the Election Commission' for the opportunity.
A group of seven persons from Bihar met Gandhi at his residence in Delhi and shared their experience of how they were declared 'dead' by the Election Commission and their names removed from the draft electoral rolls published on August 1 as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
जीवन में बहुत दिलचस्प अनुभव हुए हैं,लेकिन कभी 'मृत लोगों' के साथ चाय पीने का मौका नहीं मिला था।
इस अनोखे अनुभव के लिए, धन्यवाद चुनाव आयोग! pic.twitter.com/Rh9izqIFsD
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 13, 2025
'There have been many interesting experiences in life, but I never got the chance to have tea with 'dead people'. For this unique experience, thank you Election Commission!' Gandhi said on X.
A statement from Congress identified the 'dead voters' as Ramikbal Ray, Harendra Ray, Lalmuni Devi, Vachiya Devi, Lalwati Devi, Punam Kumari, and Munna Kumar — all of whom are from Raghopur, the constituency of former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav.
'They have been removed from the electoral rolls despite having completed the requisite paperwork for the SIR,' read the party's statement.
The Election Commission has 'not openly published lists of the people who it has declared dead, migrated, etc', the statement read. 'These 7 represent only a fraction of unjustly deleted voters in 2-3 polling booths in the constituency. This is not a clerical error — it is political disenfranchisement in plain sight.'
It said that after 'vote chori (theft)' was exposed in Bengaluru, it 'is clear that the Bihar SIR exercise was also compromised', adding, 'When the living are struck off as dead, the death certificate is issued to democracy itself.'
On X, Gandhi shared a video of his meeting with the group, in which he is heard telling them to move around and see Delhi as the 'dead' cannot even be charged tickets.
In the video, some of them can be heard telling Gandhi that they came to know they were 'declared dead' by the EC during the SIR. They are among the 65 lakh voters whose names have been removed from the draft rolls.
On Tuesday, INDIA bloc MPs staged a protest in the Parliament complex wearing white T-shirts printed with the slogan — 'Minta Devi 124 Not Out', referring to a first-time voter from Siwan district whose age was listed as 124 years in the voters' list though she was born in 1990. The district administration claimed the discrepancy was a clerical error during the online application process.