Congress chief Kharge alleges voter roll manipulation, calls for safeguarding democracy, and announces Rahul Gandhi’s Voter Adhikar Yatra.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge hoists the national flag at Indira Bhawan, highlighting voter roll irregularities and defending democracy.
New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday took a veiled dig at the government and highlighted the party's recent campaign against alleged vote theft and dubbed it as a fight to save democracy.
Kharge, who hoisted the national flag at party new headquarters Indira Bhawan for the first time here, while Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi standing soaked in rain along with several senior leaders.
Ge took a jibe at the Election Commission for removing the name of 65 lakh voters in Bihar under the special intensive revision of voter rolls exercise.
Targeting the BJP, Kharge said: ""The BJP did not have any objection to names of 65 lakh people being omitted from the electoral rolls and this shows who benefitted from the SIR exercise."
“This is not a fight to win elections but to save India’s democracy and protect the Constitution,” Kharge said.
However, the Congress President's speech at the party headquarters was curtailed as heavy rains battered the national capital. Kharge then shared.his entire speech on the social media through a video statement.
The Congress leader said that the foundation of Indian democracy is free and fair elections and Dr BR Ambedkar on June 15, 1948 had said 'Franchise is a most fundamental things in a democracy. No person who is entitled to be brought into the electoral rolls….should be excluded merely as a result of prejudice….”
Taking a swipe at the BJP, the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said: "But to stay in power, the ruling party can go to any extent of immorality to stay in power."
He also alleged that several massive irregularities in elections are coming to the fore.
The Congress leader also alleged that through SIR, openly the votes of Opposition are being removed and those who are alive have been declared dead.
Pointing out on the functionality of the Election Commission, he said, "The fairness of the Election Commission can be understood from this fact that it is not ready to share the reason why the names of voters were deleted from electoral rolls."
Kharge thanked the Supreme Court and said that it heard the voices of people and asked the poll panel to share the names of people who have been omitted from the voter rolls.
Referring to Rahul Gandhi's August 7 press conference, Kharge said that the facts he presented have proved that how irregularities were done to win in Lok Sabha.
Now similar such evidences of irregularities are coming, where the Congress got the lead in assembly segment but how BJP got lead in one such assembly segment and emerged victorious, he claimed.
One again talking about the Maharashtra assembly polls held last year, Lharge said, "We had similar apprehension in Maharashtra assembly polls and the party is analysing and probing the facts and it will be shared with the people at appropriate time."
He said that this is not a challenge for Congress, but it is a challenge for the world's largest democracy
He also appealed the leaders of the party to analyze and cross check the voter rolls of every booth and study it thoroughly and find out how many names have been omitted or they have been declared dead or have been shifted to another booth under conspiracy.
He also asked the party leaders to check if outsiders were made voters and if a person's voter ID has been added at multiple booths.
He also said that now a new technique is being witnessed that a new voter.list.is sent on the day of polling on the name of additional list and the candidates have very less time to analyze the same.
"This is a conspiracy by our opponent. But soon we will have to expose their conspiracy," hensaid, adding that the Congress party has.made a website on which all details of such malpractices can be shared.
He further stated that people from across the country are sharing te information and the party is collecting that.
Kharge also stressed that this is not a fight to win elections, but it is a fight to save democracy. "This is a fight to save the Constitution," he said.
The Congress asserted that they need to save the dream of Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Dr BR Ambedkar, Maulana Azad and others from getting shattered and need to fight honestly the way in which it fought for independence.
Kharge also added that Rahul Gandhi will be embarking on Voter Adhikar Yatra from August 17 to fight for the same cause.
"You all have to make it a huge success," he appealed.
