The Congress party on Tuesday announced to launch a nationwide campaign to expose alleged electoral fraud and voter list manipulation, accusing the Election Commission of India of colluding with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
The campaign comes after Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, claimed that the ECI was facilitating “vote theft” in collusion with the BJP.
The decision was taken at a meeting Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge chaired of AICC general secretaries, state in-charges and heads of frontal organisations to discuss a nationwide campaign against alleged voter list manipulation and election fraud.
Other than Kharge, the meeting was attended by senior party leaders, including Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Sachin Pilot, KC Venugopal, Kumari Selja and others.
As part of the campaign, the party has planned a district-level night march, “Vote chor, gaddi chhodd” rally, to be held at 8 pm on August 14 in all districts.
State-level “Vote chor, gaddi chhodd” rallies will also be organized from August 21 to September 7. A massive signature campaign will be conducted from September 15 to October 15, with the aim of collecting 5 crore signatures which would be submitted to the Election Commission.
According to Congress general secretary K C Venugopal, the Congress party’s strategy is to take the issue to the grassroots level and raise awareness among the people about the alleged electoral fraud. The party has instructed all Pradesh Congress Committees (PCCs) to screen Rahul Gandhi’s press conference at state headquarters to expose the alleged BJP-ECI nexus.
Earlier in the day, workers of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) marched from the organisation’s headquarters in Delhi to Jantar Mantar, protesting against the Election Commission over alleged voter list manipulation. Youth Congress activists also held a ‘Halla Bol March’ during which several protestors were detained by the Delhi Police.