Latest news with #Congress party
Reuters
3 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
India's Rahul Gandhi says he will challenge 'serious discrepancies' in electoral system
NEW DELHI, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said on Wednesday India's electoral system suffers from "serious discrepancies" and he pledged to continue challenging its integrity through public mobilisation and potentially the courts. Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that controls the main opposition Congress party, last week accused authorities of manipulating voter rolls by adding fake names in the 2024 general election and other recent polls. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, which performed below expectations in the national vote and had to rely on allies to form a government, went on to win several state elections with relative ease. The BJP and the Election Commission have both denied the rigging charges, which are rare in the world's most populous democracy of 1.42 billion people. "There are serious discrepancies in the election system, and we will diligently keep exposing them,' Gandhi told a group of reporters citing research conducted by Congress party colleagues. However, he said he aimed to preserve public trust in democratic institutions. "We do not want to discredit the election process of India, so we are doing it slowly and deliberately," he said at his official bungalow in central Delhi, where portraits of his father and grandmother — both former prime ministers — hung from the walls. Gandhi said the party's strategy was focused on building public pressure. "We mainly want to challenge the Election Commission through the people but could eventually go to court." "If elections are rigged, no amount of cadre mobilisation will work. The game we are playing is rigged," Gandhi said, when asked by Reuters if the opposition alliance could oust Modi in the next national election in 2029. His comments come ahead of a closely contested state election in Bihar. 'The Bihar election is looking very close, but we are rising and they are declining,' he said. Bihar, one of India's most politically important states, goes to polls by November. It is ruled by an alliance of Modi's party but according to a recent survey by the VoteVibe agency, the opposition has an edge largely because of a lack of jobs.
BBC News
4 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Explained: Why is the opposition protesting against India's election commission?
A political row has erupted in India over allegations of "vote theft" by opposition parties, and accusations of electoral irregularities against the country's election body, which they say favoured the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 general elections. On Tuesday, parliament was adjourned after opposition MPs demanded a debate on the integrity of India's electoral process. A day earlier, dozens of opposition leaders, including Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, were briefly detained by the police in the capital Delhi, as they tried to march to the Election Commission of India's (ECI) headquarters. Gandhi first raised the issue at a 7 August press conference in Delhi, and has since managed to galvanise strong support from hundreds of opposition lawmakers. The Election Commission and the BJP have aggressively rejected the allegations. What are Rahul Gandhi's allegations against the Election Commission? Gandhi has alleged widespread voter manipulation during the 2024 parliamentary elections, citing granular data obtained from the electoral body itself - though the ECI and the ruling party dispute his Minister Narendra Modi secured a historic third term in the elections, but his BJP-led alliance fell short of the sweeping majority predicted. Voter turnout averaged 66% in the world's largest election, with nearly a billion registered voters - one in eight people on cited electoral data for Mahadevapura, an assembly segment in the Bangalore Central parliamentary constituency, and claimed that the voter list had more than 100,000 manipulated entries, including duplicate voters, invalid addresses, and bulk registrations of votes at single presented examples of voters like Shakun Rani, who he claimed cast her ballots twice - a claim disputed by the election body. Gandhi also alleged CCTV footage from polling booths was deleted and pointed out an instance of 80 people registered in a single address in Mahadevapura. The Congress leader says his party lost at least 48 seats in the elections due to such irregularities and has accused India's election body of failing to enforce the "one man, one vote" principle. The Congress won 99 of the 543 seats in the elections, behind BJP's has demanded that the ECI release digital voter rolls, so that they can be audited by his party and the public. The BBC hasn't independently verified Gandhi's claims. What have the ECI and BJP said? Soon after Gandhi's press conference, ECI responded on social media platform X, calling his allegations "absurd" and denying many of his claims. The polling body has demanded that he either submit a signed declaration under oath or apologise to the Karnataka state unit further said that the Congress didn't file formal objections when the electoral roll was being revised ahead of the 2024 parliamentary poll body earlier said it keeps CCTV footage only for 45 days after results - the window for filing election leaders have also strongly rebutted the allegations. "This anarchy is extremely worrying and dangerous for democracy," BJP leader and federal education minister Dharmendra Pradhan agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said Gandhi and the opposition alliance were "defaming democracy, tearing it to shreds, and tampering with the dignity of constitutional institutions". What has been the political fallout? Gandhi's allegations have led to an uproar as they come in the backdrop of a controversy over a month-long revision of electoral rolls in Bihar state, where key elections are scheduled for November. The Special Intensive Revision (SIR), held between June and July, saw officials visit all 78.9 million voters in the state for verification - the first update since ECI says the drive targets duplicate and deceased voters, but critics say its haste has disenfranchised many, especially migrants and voters in Bihar have told the BBC that the draft rolls have wrong photos and include dead Supreme Court is currently hearing a batch of petitions challenging the SIR, with petitioners demanding publication of the deleted names - about 6.5 million - with reasons for their election body says deletions include 2.2 million dead, 700,000 enrolled more than once and 3.6 million who have migrated from the are open until 1 September, with over 165,000 applications received. A similar review will be conducted nationwide to verify nearly a billion court has said that the allegations of disenfranchisement "largely appears to be a case of trust deficit, nothing else" and that it would "step in immediately" if mass exclusion of voters is 12 August, Gandhi escalated his claims of vote theft, saying such manipulation was happening "at a national level and systematically". Highlighting the case of a 124-year-old voter's name found in the draft electoral list of Bihar he said: "There are unlimited cases like that. 'Abhi picture baki hai' [the story is not over yet]."
Khaleej Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- Khaleej Times
India: Rahul Gandhi arrested along with other leaders protesting against election panel
3Dozens of Indian opposition leaders were detained in New Delhi on Monday as they shouted slogans, jumped barricades and marched to the Election Commission in a rare public protest against what they say are electoral malpractices. The credibility of elections has rarely been questioned in recent decades in the world's most populous democracy. Some analysts say the opposition accusations could damage Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he navigates one of the toughest periods of his 11 years in office. Around 300 opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi of the main opposition Congress party, marched from parliament to the office of the independent election panel but were stopped by police some distance away. The protesters shouted slogans against the panel and Modi's government, saying elections were being "stolen", and tried to push past barricades before being detained and taken away in buses. "This fight is not political. This fight is to save the constitution," Gandhi told reporters. "We want a clean, pure voters' list." Gandhi and Congress have alleged that voters' lists in states where the party lost are corrupted, with voters' names deleted or included more than once to rig elections in favour of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party. Opposition parties have also criticised the election panel's decision to revise the voters' list in the key northern state of Bihar just before state elections due later this year, saying it aims to disenfranchise large numbers of poor voters. The BJP and the Election Commission have rejected the accusations. 'State of bankruptcy' The commission has said that changes in voters' lists are shared with political parties and all complaints are investigated thoroughly. It has also said that voters' lists need to be revised to remove dead voters or those who have relocated to other parts of the country, among others. Congress and its allies have fared poorly in two state elections that they had expected to win after an impressive show in last year's parliamentary vote, which saw BJP losing its outright majority and remaining in power only with the help of regional parties. Congress has also complained about electronic voting machines and said the counting process is not fair, charges rejected by the election panel. The BJP said opposition parties were trying to create a "state of anarchy" by sowing seeds of doubt about the electoral process. "They are in a state of bankruptcy because of their continuous losses," federal minister Dharmendra Pradhan told reporters on Monday.
Reuters
6 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Rahul Gandhi among opposition leaders detained during protest against India election panel
NEW DELHI, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Dozens of Indian opposition leaders were detained in New Delhi on Monday as they shouted slogans, jumped barricades and marched to the Election Commission in a rare public protest against what they say are electoral malpractices. The credibility of elections has rarely been questioned in recent decades in the world's most populous democracy. Some analysts say the opposition accusations could damage Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he navigates one of the toughest periods of his 11 years in office. Around 300 opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi of the main opposition Congress party, marched from parliament to the office of the independent election panel but were stopped by police some distance away. The protesters shouted slogans against the panel and Modi's government, saying elections were being "stolen", and tried to push past barricades before being detained and taken away in buses. "This fight is not political. This fight is to save the constitution," Gandhi told reporters. "We want a clean, pure voters' list." Gandhi and Congress have alleged that voters' lists in states where the party lost are corrupted, with voters' names deleted or included more than once to rig elections in favour of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party. Opposition parties have also criticised the election panel's decision to revise the voters' list in the key northern state of Bihar just before state elections due later this year, saying it aims to disenfranchise large numbers of poor voters. The BJP and the Election Commission have rejected the accusations. The commission has said that changes in voters' lists are shared with political parties and all complaints are investigated thoroughly. It has also said that voters' lists need to be revised to remove dead voters or those who have relocated to other parts of the country, among others. Congress and its allies have fared poorly in two state elections that they had expected to win after an impressive show in last year's parliamentary vote, which saw BJP losing its outright majority and remaining in power only with the help of regional parties. Congress has also complained about electronic voting machines and said the counting process is not fair, charges rejected by the election panel. The BJP said opposition parties were trying to create a "state of anarchy" by sowing seeds of doubt about the electoral process. "They are in a state of bankruptcy because of their continuous losses," federal minister Dharmendra Pradhan told reporters on Monday.
