People must protect their right to vote to safeguard Constitution: Rahul Gandhi

Launching a frontal attack on the NDA government at the Center over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said people must protect their right to vote to safeguard the Constitution.

The SIR in Bihar has exposed the BJP and the EC, and so people have started calling leaders of the saffron party vote chor', he claimed while addressing a public rally in Madhubani district as part of the Congress' Voter Adhikar Yatra'.

"BJP leaders are indulging in vote chori through the Election Commission. People must come forward to protect their right to vote and also to protect the Indian Constitution," the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha said.

People must remember that if they lose their voting rights, the Constitution cannot be protected, Gandhi asserted.

"Votes matter for the poor, because without votes, you have no rights," he added.

"Modi-ji and the RSS never saluted the national flag. Even now, they pretend to stand, but their hearts say something else. Because they know this book (Constitution) empowers Dalits, OBCs, EBCs, women, the poor, and they don't want to give them rights.

"During the Lok Sabha polls, BJP leaders used to say they wanted to change the Constitution. We said — no one has the power to change it," he said.

The EC deleted names of 65 lakh voters from the electoral rolls in Bihar, the Congress leader said, and alleged that 65 lakh electors would now be added to help the BJP.

"(Union Home Minister) Amit Shah had said that the BJP government will continue for another 40-50 years. Now I realised that he said it because they are involved in vote chori and it started from Gujarat,'' Gandhi said.

"The truth stands in front of the entire country today. They are stealing votes. They have been targeting and capturing one state after another, winning and making others lose. And I didn't say this earlier because I had no evidence. I don't lie on public platforms. I say only what I know to be true, and after getting all facts," he said.

Gandhi asserted that neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor Amit Shah uttered a single word on his charge of ''vote theft'' by the BJP.

"During the Maharashtra and Haryana elections, they first changed the election dates. The PM decides who will become the Election Commissioner. In 2023, the BJP passed a new law that no legal case can be filed against the election commissioner," he claimed.

Every citizen of India can face a case, but not them, the Congress leader asserted.

"Until 2023, even the Election Commission could be legally questioned. But in 2023, the BJP secretly changed the law, stating that no judicial action can be taken against the Election Commissioner. Why was this law made? So that the EC could steal votes without fear," Gandhi claimed.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)