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Voter Adhikar Yatra: How did ECI chief know 20 pc votes would be cut, asks INDIA bloc

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National Heraldpublisher-detail-arrow
26th August, 2025 16:30 IST

As the Bihar Voter Adhikar Yatra entered Mithilanchal — one of the state's most backward regions and a source of large-scale migration — the INDIA bloc renewed its attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI), claiming that "non-transparency has become the Commission’s defining feature".

Leaders from the Opposition INDIA bloc led by the Congress addressed a joint press conference in Phusparas in Bihar's Madhubani district on Tuesday, and alleged “deep collusion” between the ECI and the BJP to facilitate what they termed “vote chori (theft)”.

Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said the Voter Adhikar Yatra is the “beginning of a revolution” and said cases of large-scale voter fraud were surfacing across Bihar.

“In three Assembly segments alone, 3,590 such cases have come up, involving nearly 80,000 suspicious votes. We have found households where hundreds of voters are registered, each linked to different castes and religions. There are also people who figure as voters in multiple constituencies with different EPIC numbers,” Surjewala said.

The Congress leader also questioned the ECI’s prior announcement of deletions. “When we went to meet the chief election commissioner, even before the special intensive revision in Bihar was announced, he had predicted in advance that 20 per cent of the votes would be cut. I ask you Gyaneshji (Kumar) how did you know this? Moreover, despite the fact that around 65 lakh voters were struck off the electoral rolls in Bihar, the BJP-JD(U) remained silent. What bigger proof of collusion and fraud can you ask for?” he said.

RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) MP Manoj Jha said the credibility of the Election Commission had never been questioned so sharply since India's Independence.

“Today, non-transparency has become the Commission’s defining feature. We didn't go to the Supreme Court initially. We first approached the ECI with our concerns, and said with folded hands that the SIR was wrong. That it would be a loot of votes. That those deleted from the rolls would be Bihar's poor, Dalits, and minorities who are scattered across the country in search of livelihoods, and who couldn't possibly submit all eleven documents within a month, in a state where none of those documents have a saturation of more than 20 per cent.

"But it arrogantly asked people to submit all documents within a month. When we moved the Supreme Court, we got some relief, but the extreme harassment continues. The issues are being deliberately suppressed,” he said.

While the ECI has now agreed to accept Aadhaar cards (which it was earlier refusing to do) as a document and agreed to publish the names of 65 lakh voters along with the reasons for their deletion, "but I cannot describe the difficulties we're still facing", he said.

Jha also argued that the coming elections were not just about who forms the government but about “changing the agenda,” and promised that a development board would be created for Seemanchal and Mithilanchal to tackle migration and unemployment in the region.

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