'All elections rigged, laws illegal': Rahul Gandhi attacks Centre over EC-SIR row; BJP calls it 'jooth ki goonj'

File photo: BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi NEW DELHI: Congress leader and leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday escalated his attack on the Centre and the Election Commission over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, alleging that India's elections had been "rigged" and demanding the immediate resignation of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.Congress MP said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and Kumar were "deshdrohis" (traitors) for what he alleged was the destruction of the country's vote.

Watch Rahul Gandhi Demands Gyanesh Kumar's Resignation, Alleges 'Vote Chori' After ECI Rift Emerges He said the 2024 Lok Sabha and assembly elections were "all rigged" and asserted that PM Modi and Shah would be investigated over what he described as a conspiracy to "steal elections".His remarks came a day after an investigation by a media report claimed that election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally raised objections to decisions and orders related to electoral-roll management and the SIR exercise.The Election Commission has rejected the suggestion that these objections reflected a disagreement over its final decisions, saying its decisions, including those concerning SIR, were unanimous.Rahul Gandhi demands CEC's resignation Addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi, Rahul said the Election Commission was responsible for protecting the vote and accused the poll panel of failing in that duty."Mr Gyanesh Kumar must resign immediately.

We are not going to let democracy be destroyed in India and sit silent, and the people responsible for this are going to be punished," Rae Bareli MP said.

He said the reported objections by Sandhu and Joshi showed that questions were being raised within the poll panel itself."The two Election Commissioners have done a wise thing, and I appreciate it," he said.Former Congress president further alleged that the Prime Minister and home minister were "at the top of this conspiracy" and would be investigated.

He also suggested that Kumar should "turn approver", describing that as an act of nationalism."I can say with certainty that Indian elections -- 2024 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls -- were all rigged," Rahul said.He also linked the alleged manipulation of votes to the functioning of Parliament, laws and institutions."From vote chori (vote theft), comes kanoon chori (law theft) and from that comes sanstha chori (institutional theft)," he said.

Explaining the argument, the Congress leader said the vote was the foundation of the constitutional system."If the vote has been destroyed, then our Constitution has been destroyed.

If our Constitution has been destroyed, our laws are illegal.

If our laws are illegal, our institutions are meaningless," he said.He said the alleged issue was therefore not limited to electoral rolls but concerned the wider constitutional framework."The central question here is this is not just an attack on the vote; this is an attack on the idea, the basic infrastructure, and the expression of every single Indian person," Rahul said.What triggered the latest row?

The immediate trigger was an Indian Express investigation reporting that Sandhu and Joshi recorded at least 14 objections over 10 months to decisions and orders issued in the name of the Election Commission.The objections reportedly covered voter registration and deletion, changes to Form 6 used for new voter registration, access to and centralisation of electoral-roll databases, and other aspects of the SIR exercise.The report said the two commissioners had objected four times on a single day and had raised concerns about decisions they said were taken without their knowledge or approval.The Election Commission, however, has disputed the interpretation that the reported internal notes amounted to a breakdown or disagreement over final decisions.The poll panel said internal technical notes, queries and suggestions were part of the normal administrative and decision-making process and maintained that the final decisions of the Commission were unanimous.

Its response did not dispute the existence of the notes but said focusing on individual objections presented only part of the overall decision-making process.The EC's position is that all decisions relating to SIR had the approval of CEC Gyanesh Kumar and election commissioners Sandhu and Joshi.BJP rejects Rahul's allegations The BJP hit back at Lok Sabha LoP's allegations, with party spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari describing his press conference as a "damp squib" and dubbing it "Jhoot Ki Goonj".

In a post on X, Bhandari accused Rahul of making false claims and said the Congress leader was unable to win public support through democratic means.He also challenged Rahul's assertion that there had been no anti-incumbency against the BJP since 2014, saying the BJP had lost 20 elections since then.BJP leader and MP Sudhanshu Trivedi also challenged Rae Bareli MP's argument on anti-incumbency.

He pointed to the Congress's electoral record in states including Tamil Nadu and West Bengal and argued that anti-incumbency had affected the Congress as well.On the media report, Trivedi questioned the basis for treating the reported objections as evidence that the Election Commission's final decisions were not unanimous."Do you have even a single report indicating that a decision was not unanimous?" Trivedi said, adding that there was no quoted statement from any Election Commissioner saying that a final decision had not been unanimous.

He also questioned whether the reported internal objections should be treated as evidence of a wider institutional dispute when the Commission had maintained that its decisions were unanimous.Rahul's anti-incumbency argument A significant part of the Congress leader's press conference focused on what he described as the disappearance of anti-incumbency against the BJP.He cited electoral swings in Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, and said governments and political parties in India had historically faced anti-incumbency."Haryana swings from one party to another for 50 years.

Suddenly anti-incumbency disappears.

Maharashtra swings; suddenly it disappears.

Uttar Pradesh swings.

Sometimes Samajwadi, sometimes BSP; it disappears.

Madhya Pradesh, it disappears.

Gujarat, it disappears," Rahul said.He cited former prime minister Indira Gandhi's experience after the 1971 Bangladesh war as an example of how anti-incumbency, according to him, had affected even highly popular leaders.Join conversation Share your thoughts in the comments Be respectful · TOI community guidelines "It happens to leader after leader.

It does not happen to PM Modi, Shah and the BJP - now we know the answer to it," he said.He also played videos of PM Modi and Shah, including remarks about the BJP remaining in power for decades and Modi's "Abki Baar 400 Paar" slogan.

He argued that such statements were inconsistent with the normal operation of democratic politics.However, BJP has rejected Rahul's allegations, while the Election Commission has maintained that the reported objections were part of its internal decision-making process and that its final decisions, including those related to SIR, were unanimous.The dispute over the electoral-roll revision and the reported objections by the two election commissioners is now at the centre of the political exchange between Congress, BJP and the poll panel.Get the latest India News and Live updates.

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