New Delhi, Oct 9 (IANS) Congress MP and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said on Friday that President Droupadi Murmu asked the Opposition delegation to submit evidence to substantiate its allegations of “vote chori” (vote theft), as INDIA bloc leaders met her and demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, suspension of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and a return to paper ballots.
A 10-member delegation of INDIA bloc MPs, led by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and including Rahul Gandhi and Mamata All India Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee, met the President at the Rashtrapati Bhavan and submitted a memorandum alleging widespread electoral irregularities and an attempt to undermine India’s democratic framework.
The other members of the delegation were Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference Vice-President Omar Abdullah, NCP-SP MP Supriya Sule, CPI-M General Secretary M.A. Baby, RJD Rajya Sabha member Manoj Kumar Jha, CPI General Secretary D. Raja, Samajwadi Party MP Rajeev Rai, and VCK President and MP Thirumaavalavan Tholkappiyan.
In the memorandum, the Opposition claimed that elections in Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Delhi and West Bengal had been “stolen”, alleging large-scale manipulation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and electoral rolls in several Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
The delegation, which said it represented Parliamentary parties accounting for more than 60 per cent of the country’s population, urged President Murmu to intervene, describing the alleged electoral irregularities as a threat to the constitutional right to vote and the foundations of representative democracy.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Rahul Gandhi said: “I sat in quite an unbelievable meeting. First, we took a memorandum to the President of India. In that memorandum, we clearly stated that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and CEC Gyanesh Kumar had conspired to destroy Indian democracy.”
“We submitted a memorandum to the President of India, informing her that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar are conspiring to destroy Indian democracy,” LoP Gandhi said.
Rahul Gandhi also claimed: “The President (Droupadi Murmu) in no way denied what we said, questioned what we said, or argued what we said. She accepted our statement and then told us that we needed to provide her with proof of ‘election chori’.”
He added that the President had asked the delegation to furnish evidence backing its claims.
“She (President Murmu) asked us to provide evidence to substantiate what we have said. We will submit the evidence to her whenever she is available,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi described the meeting as satisfactory and announced that the Opposition would approach the Supreme Court on October 12 with a memorandum to the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant.
The memorandum placed four major demands before the President:
1. Resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar and repeal of the 2023 law that, according to the Opposition, provides lifelong immunity to the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners.
2. Immediate suspension of SIR and restoration of all 13.30 crore voters whom the Opposition alleges were illegally deleted from electoral rolls.
3. A return to paper ballots for all elections, replacing the existing EVM-based voting system.
4. Repeal of Assembly elections held over the preceding two years in which, the Opposition claimed, conclusive evidence of vote theft had been presented.
The memorandum said that the right to vote, enshrined in Article 326 of the Constitution, was central to representative democracy. It maintained that the Election Commission was the constitutional custodian of this right and should be accountable for its decisions rather than operate without scrutiny.
The Opposition also accused the Chief Election Commissioner of misleading the Supreme Court to cover up alleged electoral wrongdoing. The memorandum called for accountability and urged the President to use her constitutional position to ensure that its demands were addressed without delay. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said President Murmu had listened to the delegation patiently.
Kharge said the INDIA bloc leaders had apprised the President Murmu of the agitation launched four days earlier over alleged vote theft and concerns regarding the functioning of the Election Commission.
Mamata Banerjee said President Murmu had indicated that she would examine the memorandum and wanted supporting evidence.
“She (President Murmu) has asked us to send evidence, which we said we (INDIA bloc leaders) will do,” Banerjee said, adding that the country was concerned about the state of democracy.
The meeting followed several days of Opposition protests against the Election Commission, the SIR exercise and alleged electoral irregularities, with INDIA bloc leaders demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation.
–IANS
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