Rally, legal action: Cong plans to intensify fight against SIR

Indian National Congress

- Saubhadra Chatterji

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi during a meeting on Tuesday.

The Congress plans to organise a rally against vote chori (theft) at the Ramlila Maidan in December to expose the “politicisation” of the Election Commission (EC) and fight “politically, legally and organisationally” against this, party officials said after a meeting at the party's headquarters on Tuesday.

They added that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union governmentis “attempting to weaponise the SIR process for vote chori.” A special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is underway in 12 states.

‘Ata meeting at Indira Bhawan, the party's top brass met party leaders of the 12 states, as it prepares to take the issue to the people once again. Earlier, Lok Sabha’s Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhiled a Voter Adhikar Yatra in Bihar for 15 days in August, targeting the alleged vote theft by the BJP through an SIR in the state. That issue found little traction in an election in which the Congress was reduced to six seats in the Bihar assembly, its worst showing in I5 years.