Congress says voices against ‘capture of electoral system’ growing louder

New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday said the chorus of voices against the capture of the electoral system is getting louder and asserted that citizens will no longer tolerate “vote chori” in any form.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the INDIA bloc is committed to protecting the Constitution and democracy.

“In an interview to a leading national daily, Former CEC O.P. Rawat has questioned the SIR and the violations committed by the ECI. It is ‘the first time since Independence that so many eligible voters have lost their vote’. Nearly 14 crore voters have already been disenfranchised by the SIR,” Ramesh said on X.

“India’s EC used to be ‘the gold standard’, but its credibility has been destroyed. In his (Rawat’s) view, the 2 ECs should have done more to stop the CEC’s illegal decisions,” the Congress leader said.

The chorus of voices against the capture of the electoral system is getting louder, Ramesh said and asserted that citizens will no longer tolerate “vote chori” in any form.

Slamming the way the SIR has been carried out, Rawat told The Hindu that this is the first time since Independence that so many eligible electors had lost their voting rights.

Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi should have forced a vote to annul any decisions they disagreed with during Commission meetings, given that they held the majority, and the CEC has no veto, Rawat was quoted as saying.

The Congress’ attack comes a day after the opposition INDIA bloc announced joint ‘save democracy’ marches in all districts and five major rallies, demanded that future polls be held with ballot paper and appealed to the Supreme Court to expedite cases of SIR and electoral “malpractices”.

At a meeting attended by leaders of as many as 19 political parties that lasted over three-and-a-half hours, it was decided that all opposition MPs will march to the Election Commission on October 6 and the leaders would meet the President to highlight the issues related to alleged irregularities in voter list revision.

The opposition grouping discussed the demand for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation and said they will not relent till he is ousted.

The meeting came days after The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sandhu and Joshi objected on record at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders on the SIR (Special Intensive Revision) that they said were issued without their knowledge or recommendation.

Under fire over the red flags raised by two of its commissioners over the SIR process, the EC has asserted that differing views and observations are a normal part of deliberations in any institution and all its orders carry full legal sanction and follow established statutory procedures.