'Modi, Shah, BJP, EC Partners In Stealing Votes': Rahul Gandhi Ups The Ante During Bihar 'Voter Adhikar Yatra'
The Congress leader also alleged vote theft in the assembly elections in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.
Published : August 19, 2025 at 2:48 PM IST
By Dev Raj
Nawada: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday sharpened his attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Election Commission (EC) on the third day of his ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ and alleged that they were in partnership to steal votes of the common people.
“There is a partnership going on between the BJP and the Election Commission. They are stealing votes together. Vote is your right. The Constitution provides it. You have fought for it. Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and Election Commission have colluded to snatch it from you,” Rahul said as his yatra rolled on from Gaya district to Nawada district.
“We, including Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and other leaders of INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) will not allow the theft of a single vote in Bihar,” the Congress leader added.
Rahul, who is also the leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, alleged that the Assembly polls in Maharashtra, Haryana, and Madhya Pradesh too were “stolen”.
He claimed that the EC included one crore new voters in the electoral rolls of Maharashtra before the Assembly polls “as if by magic”. “It did not give any reply when the Congress questioned, nor showed the videography of the state election,” Rahul said.
He asserted that vote theft was happening in Bihar through the SIR (Special Intensive Revision), in which “people’s votes were being stolen in front of their eyes”.
Addressing the crowd that had assembled to listen to him, the leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said: “At first your voter cards (Election Photo Identity Card) and then your ration cards would be taken away. Your land would be given to Adani and Ambani. This country is not just of two or three billionaires; it is of farmers, youths, workers, the poor, the common people.”
Speaking in the same vein, Rahul averred that all steps like notebandi (demonetisation), GST (Goods and Services Tax), and laws were being made for the billionaire industrialists, “and all wrong deeds were being done for them”. He also thanked the people for supporting his yatra.
The 16-day Voter Adhikar Yatra was launched on Sunday (August 17) from Sasaram in Bihar to protest the anomalies in the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls. It will cover around 1,300 km across more than 20 districts in the state and end with a public rally at Gandhi Maidan in Patna on September 1.
Top leaders of INDIA bloc in the state, including Tejashwi Yadav, CPIML general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahni and others are accompanying Rahul in the yatra.
Speaking on the occasion, Tejashwi also iterated that the BJP and EC were snatching the right to vote of the poor people and deleting their names from the electoral rolls. He asked the public to overthrow chief minister Nitish Kumar-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in the forthcoming Assembly polls.
“We have to uproot the ramshackle government in the state. The vote thieves should leave the throne. Uncle Nitish is in an unconscious condition. His government is just aping whatever we are promising. We have to ensure speedy development and make a new Bihar. We need a government that will ensure education, employment, and medicine to the people,” Tejashwi said.
Bhattacharya asserted that the march was against SIR, which was a conspiracy to deprive the people of their right to vote, and to bring a change in the state.
“We need to change the government in Bihar to uphold the rights of the poor and fulfill their aspirations of a change in the coming Assembly elections. The British have left but the present government in the country is behaving like them. The East India Company is gone, but the 'Adani Ambani company' is on,” Bhattacharya said.
Earlier, before the yatra entered Nawada, Rahul Gandhi stepped down from the open-top vehicle he was travelling in and met several school students who had come carrying national flags to see him at Wazirganj in Gaya district.
“The future of the children of Hindustan and the pride of the tricolor are safe due to democracy and the Constitution. We will not allow them to be snatched away by ‘vote chori’ (stealing of votes),” the Congress leader said after interacting with the school children and distributing toffees among them.
Rahul handed over keys of a newly-constructed house at Gehlaur to ‘Mountain Man’ Dashrath Manjhi’s son Bhagirath Manjhi and hugged him as his yatra left Gaya. The Congress leader had visited their native place during his last visit to the district in June.
Meanwhile, around 500 Congress members from Jharkhand, led by the party’s state president Keshav Mahto Kamlesh joined the Vote Adhikar Yatra at Nawada on Tuesday.
Read More:
