INDIA bloc reschedules EC protest to August 11 after Shibu Soren's death
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The Opposition's march to the Election Commission of India headquarters against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar has been rescheduled to August 11, a source said on Tuesday.The march, earlier scheduled to be held on August 8, was rescheduled after the death of former Jharkhand chief minister Shibu Soren The schedule of the dinner meeting of the INDIA bloc leaders remains the same, and will be held on the evening of August 7 at Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi 's new residence - 5, Sunehri Bagh road.Popularly known as Guruji, Shibu Soren died at a private hospital in Delhi on Monday.Several Opposition leaders are visiting Ranchi on Tuesday to pay their last respects to the leader credited with leading the agitation for the formation of the state of Jharkhand.Following his death, a protest that the Congress was to hold in Bengaluru on Tuesday was postponed to August 8. That protest is to be led by Rahul Gandhi.The Congress is protesting against what it calls large-scale manipulation of electoral rolls in Bengaluru's Mahadevapura constituency in the 2023 Assembly polls.At a meeting of the INDIA bloc parties on Tuesday morning, Opposition leaders agreed that SIR remains the key issue for the Monsoon Session, and they will continue protests inside, as well as outside, the House, pressing for a debate on the issue.Opposition parties have warned that the exercise may lead to disenfranchisement of many, and have called it "vote-bandi" and "vote-chori" (vote theft).
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Fix the flaws: On Rahul Gandhi's ‘stolen elections' allegation and the Election Commission of India
The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has levelled serious allegations of 'criminal fraud' against the Election Commission of India (ECI), by claiming that over one lakh fake votes were created in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment of the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency in order to ensure a victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 general election. His detailed presentation outlining five categories of alleged electoral malpractices demands careful examination, not wholesale dismissal. The Congress leader's documentation reveals troubling patterns: voters registered multiple times within the same constituency, identical Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers across different States, and improbably large numbers of voters listed at single addresses. While identical EPIC numbers across different States are not a significant issue — the ECI addressed these anomalies earlier this year — his claim that party workers found booth slips showing multiple votes by the 'same person' in a single booth represents a serious violation of the 'one person, one vote' principle, if verified. Mr Gandhi claimed that these discrepancies were not limited to Mahadevapura but were part of a calculated modus operandi to help the BJP in marginal constituencies across the country. The Congress party had made similar allegations about massive increases in electoral registrations prior to the Maharashtra Assembly election, claiming that these had contributed to the unexpected victory of the BJP and its allies, though without elaborate proof of erroneous registrations as seen in Mahadevapura. Mr. Gandhi's analysis stops short of proving that these discrepancies directly enabled the BJP's victory. The BJP won the Mahadevapura Assembly seat in 2023 with a margin of approximately 44,500 votes. The increased margin, to over 1,14,000 votes, in 2024 happened even though the total accretions in the electoral roll were around 52,600 electors and the actual voter count increased only by around 20,000. Establishing a causal link between electoral roll errors and poll outcomes requires more than circumstantial correlation. The leap from documenting registration flaws to alleging deliberate fraud orchestrated by the ECI in collusion with the BJP remains unsubstantiated. The ECI has adopted an unnecessarily defensive stance by demanding that evidence be submitted 'under oath' — a requirement that legal experts suggest may not apply in this situation — and attributing electoral discrepancies to the failure by political parties to raise concerns during registration. More problematic is the ECI's practice of releasing voter information in bulky image PDFs rather than structured, searchable text formats, which hinders verification efforts by political parties and civil society organisations. The ECI's approach to voter registration relies heavily on self-declarations and lacks robust verification mechanisms. The Mahadevapura controversy highlights the urgent need for comprehensive electoral roll reform through door-to-door verification, the most reliable method. The ECI's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar appears to respond to critics about electoral roll problems. In theory, this should help maintain more accurate rolls. However, rushed implementation and problematic identity verification requirements risk creating new issues related to legitimate voter deletion. Data already show higher deletions among women electors than men in Bihar. Considering that most out-migrants are males, the higher deletion of women electors could indicate that marginalised electors — particularly those who are illiterate (literacy rate of women aged 15-49 years in Bihar was 55% in 2019-21, according to the National Family Health Survey) — have been erroneously excluded in the enumeration process for the draft SIR roll. The broader challenge extends to multiple aspects of electoral administration: lax implementation of campaign finance regulations and the Model Code of Conduct, tallying VVPATs from only small samples rather than statistically significant proportions, inadequate technical safeguards for symbol loading in VVPATs, and the unwillingness to submit the EVM's technical safeguards to independent expert verification. The ECI's resistance to retaining CCTV footage from polling booths, delays in publishing final turnout figures, and evolution into an institution viewing criticism as an attack represent a troubling departure from democratic norms. The fundamental issue underlying current electoral controversies is the erosion of institutional trust. The ECI's credibility depends not merely on technical soundness but also on public confidence in its impartiality and transparency. The process of appointing Election Commissioners needs to follow the Supreme Court's recommendation to include the Chief Justice of India in the selection panel, currently side-stepped by the government. Mr. Gandhi's allegations fall short of establishing deliberate fraud. But his party's findings perform a valuable democratic function by highlighting systemic flaws. The appropriate response requires comprehensive voter roll auditing, enhanced transparency in data sharing, improved technical safeguards including comprehensive audit trails of EVM commands and security protocols for symbol loading, stronger enforcement of electoral regulations, and consultations with political parties. The ECI must embrace the principle that democratic institutions grow stronger through scrutiny. The alternative — continued erosion of confidence in electoral processes — poses far greater risks to democratic governance than any specific allegation of malpractice.
The Hindu
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Letters to The Editor — August 9, 2025
Proof of 'elections stolen' Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi's detonation of his 'atom bomb proof of vote chori' — allegations of massive voter theft in the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency in Karnataka — raises serious questions about the very sanctity of the electoral process. Mr. Gandhi's claim that a Congress party team spent six months analysing voter data to spot gross irregularities, is too serious to be dismissed either by the Election Commission of India (ECI) or the Bharatiya Janata Party, the alleged beneficiary of such irregularities. The institutional integrity of the ECI and its competence are at stake. Mr. Gandhi has put out full and verifiable data in the public domain. The ECI must probe the allegations in a transparent manner. It is needless to mention that Mr. Gandhi and his party will pay a heavy political cost if his allegations are found to be baseless and malicious. S.K. Choudhury, Bengaluru There is no obvious reason to dispute the evidence-based exposé of large-scale electoral roll manipulations. One must consider that a team of his party workers completed a seemingly impossible task of meticulously analysing entries from piles of paper sheets over months. Other skeletons may emerge if a similar exercise is conducted in several other constituencies. The common man is unconcerned with the ECI hunting for technicalities in Mr. Gandhi's fight with the ECI. They only want clear answers for each of his 'open and shut' instances of voter list manipulation. Kamal Laddha, Bengaluru A fair and free election does not mean the pride in computing voter turnout only. It also means a true voters' list. The Election Commission has to prove that it is clean. M. Xavier, Vallioor, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu If what the Congress leader has alleged has any substance or evidentiary value, it is a blow to democracy. The evidence given by the Congress leader is already in the public domain and the ECI can straightaway take up a detailed probe. If the probe falsifies the allegations, let the law take its course against him. Else, there will be every justification to suspect the primacy, the sanctity and the integrity of the poll body. V. Johan Dhanakumar, Chennai The charge of 'vote theft' has reignited the debate over the Election Commission's role. The BJP counters this as 'selective outrage', noting that the Congress never questioned the ECI's neutrality where it won. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, while cautioning against hasty electoral roll revisions, stresses that any bias or disenfranchisement — especially of the poor — would be a 'monstrous development'. My view is that the ECI, as an independent constitutional body, is an easy target for Opposition parties after an electoral defeat — just as the BJP might have done if in the opposition. The Congress, long used to being in power, seems unwilling to adapt itself to being out of power. However, the BJP too has erred in not accepting the Chief Justice of India as the neutral third member in the Chief Election Commissioner's selection panel, which would have strengthened institutional trust. A robust democracy demands both: credible elections and restraint in undermining constitutional bodies without solid proof. Gopalaswamy J., Chennai It is distressing that Mr. Gandhi has stooped low to salvage his fading image by issuing unwarranted and denigrating insinuations against a constitutional institution as exalted as the Election Commission of India. He has not shown any sign of remorse even after being reprimanded by the Supreme Court for his penchant of coming up with shallow public utterances. Mr. Gandhi should desist from attacking our democracy in such an irresponsible manner. Ravi Mathur, Noida, Uttar Pradesh
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3 minutes ago
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Stir against SIR a meeting point for Trinamool and Congress
The campaign against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar has provided a meeting ground for the INDIA bloc parties, especially the Congress and Trinamool Congress, the only two allies under the bloc who did not have an electoral understanding during the 2024 General Election. The relationship between the Congress and the Trinamool rapidly declined from December 2023, after the two sides failed to work out a seat-sharing arrangement. The Trinamool's offer of two seats wasn't acceptable to the Congress West Bengal unit, then headed by former Lok Sabha MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. Mr. Chowdhury tirades against the Trinamool leadership, especially Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, worsened the situation. The Trinamool, while remaining in the larger INDIA bloc, has often taken an independent stance standing at a remove from the bloc. New bonhomie At a dinner on Thursday hosted by Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi for INDIA bloc leaders, the two sides seemed to have turned a page. According to sources, before sitting down for dinner, the Trinamool's national general secretary and newly appointed Parliamentary leader in the Lok Sabha Abhishek Banerjee spent nearly 20 minutes chatting with Mr. Gandhi. 'Mr. Banerjee was seated along with DMK leader K. Kanimozhi, NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule, PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav. While the table was already crowded, Mr. Gandhi pulled a chair to sit beside Mr. Banerjee,' one of the leaders present at the dinner meeting said. The West Bengal Assembly elections are scheduled next year. Insiders are counting on this bonhomie to continue till then, helping the two sides to come to an electoral understanding. The Election Commission has stated that the SIR will be extended to other States too, though it has not laid out a timetable. In 2026 four States go to polls: West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The leaders, as per multiple sources, discussed that the campaign against SIR has to be sustained beyond the Parliament session and the September 1 rally planned in Patna by the bloc. Mr. Gandhi and the Congress received collective appreciation for their work on Mahadevapura Assembly segment in Karnataka. Mr. Gandhi, accusing the Election Commission of criminal fraud, said 1,00,250 fake voters were created in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment. It was also suggested that this exercise should be done for other constituencies, with one of the leaders suggesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha seat Varanasi specifically for a similar analysis. The INDIA bloc leadership is also working to heal the rift between the Aam Aadmi Party and the bloc. To ensure AAP's participation in a protest march to Election Commission's office, scheduled for Monday, the leaders are carefully omitting the use of the 'INDIA bloc' banner. AAP had recently announced that it is no longer part of the INDIA bloc.
