Attempt being made to ‘steal’ Bihar polls like Maharashtra: Rahul Gandhi at Patna protest

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress MP, Rahul Gandhi, and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday led the Opposition INDIA bloc’s massive protest against the Election Commission of India’s special intensive revision of the electoral roll in poll-bound Bihar.

Hundreds of RJD, Congress, and Communist Party of India (Marxist) workers joined their leaders as they marched towards the State Election Commission office in Patna.

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Addressing his supporters in Patna, Rahul Gandhi said that an attempt is being made to steal the Bihar election, claiming the ECI’s special intensive revision exercise is aimed at snatching the votes of the poor.

“I want to tell the people of India and Bihar that just as the Maharashtra election was stolen, an attempt is being made to steal the Bihar election in the same way. They have realised that we have understood the Maharashtra model, so now they have brought the Bihar model. I want to clearly tell you that this is a way to snatch the votes of the poor, but they don’t know that this is Bihar, and the people of Bihar will never let this happen,” he said.

The Opposition INDIA bloc has announced a complete Bihar shutdown against the roll revision and in support of the trade union’s Bharat Bandh over the Modi government’s economic policies that have allegedly weakened workers’ rights.

The Congress has termed the poll panel’s controversial exercise a “vote bandi” (vote ban), terming it a BJP-JD(U) conspiracy to strip people of Bihar of their voting rights.

RJD leader and former Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav alleged that the RSS-BJP-JD(U) want to remove democracy from Bihar, but the state, being the mother of democracy, will not let them succeed.

“The tyranny of the RSS-BJP-Nitish government will not work here. Bihar is the mother of democracy and we will not let them remove democracy from the state,” Yadav said amid loud slogans against the BJP-Nitish government.

CPI General Secretary D Raja also addressed the gathering, accusing the Modi government of not supporting the poor. “The Modi government is supporting Ambani and Adani but not the poor people,” he said.