SIR is an institutionalised way of stealing votes: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday (August 24, 2025) alleged that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is an institutionalised way of stealing votes in Bihar. He however asserted that the Opposition will not allow vote theft hereafter.

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Mr. Gandhi, also said that all the INDIA bloc constituents in Bihar are working unitedly for the upcoming Assembly elections and that the results will be fruitful.

Addressing a joint press conference of the INDIA bloc in Araria, Mr. Gandhi said that there is complete ideological and strategic cohesion among the parties in the grand alliance, and it reflects during the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’, which has drawn a huge response.

Besides Mr. Gandhi, leaders such as Tejashwi Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Pawan Khera, chairperson of the AICC media and publicity department, Dipankar Bhattacharya of the Communist Party of India-(Marxist Leninist) and Mukesh Sahani of the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) addressed the joint press conference.

‘People acknowledge manipulation’

Resuming the Yatra from Kaithar, all the leaders reached Araria. Mr. Gandhi said the overwhelming support for the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ is proof that crores of people in Bihar acknowledge the reality of electoral manipulation and are determined to stop it. He claimed that during the ‘Yatra’, kids as young as 6-year-olds have started saying, ‘Vote Chor, Gaddi Chhor’ (Vote thief, leave the throne).

“We will not allow the Election Commission and the BJP to steal votes in Bihar. I have already proved beyond any doubt how one lakh fake voters were included in Mahadevapura Assembly segment. Instead of taking any action, the Election Commission of India asked me to file an affidavit,” Mr. Gandhi said.

Accusing the ECI of being partial, Mr. Gandhi said when BJP leader Anurag Thakur made the same allegations which he had made earlier, the poll body did not ask him to submit an affidavit till this day.

‘BJP-ECI partnership’

He added that such action proves that there is a partnership between the Election Commission and the BJP because the ECI is not neutral.

Mr. Gandhi pointed out that the entire Opposition is speaking against the deletion of voters from the electoral rolls, but not the BJP.

On a question about INDIA bloc’s plan for farmers if voted to power, Mr. Gandhi said, “The Mahagathbandhan will prepare a Bihar-specific manifesto that will focus on debt relief, storage and export-import facilities to protect farmers from exploitation.”

Mr. Yadav too accused the ECI of acting like one more cell of the BJP. He said it isq1 no longer the Election Commission, but the ‘Godi Commission’.

He also pointed out how the Modi government had passed a law granting legal immunity to the Election Commissioners from any action, while making a law to remove Chief Ministers if they remain behind bars for a month.

Replying to a question about INDIA bloc ‘tarnishing the image’ of the ECI through the Yatra as claimed by BJP leaders, Mr. Bhattacharya said, if anyone is responsible for raising a question on the credibility of the Election Commission, it is the Commission itself, which has now become the ‘Election Omission of India’