Congress leader Pawan Khera announced plans for the Congress to collaborate with INDIA bloc partners within days to devise a unified strategy against alleged voter list manipulation by the BJP and Election Commission (EC). Speaking in Srinagar during a chain hunger strike for Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, Khera said a “people’s campaign” against this “vote theft” is gaining momentum, with citizens independently investigating voter rolls.
On August 7, 2025, Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition, accused the BJP and EC of a “huge criminal fraud” in elections, citing evidence from Karnataka’s Mahadevapura constituency, where over 1 lakh duplicate voters and invalid addresses were allegedly found. Khera challenged the EC’s demand for an affidavit from Gandhi, stating, “These are the EC’s own papers. Do they not trust them? Let the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) give an affidavit first or resign if proven wrong.” He questioned the EC’s refusal to provide machine-readable voter lists and its practice of destroying CCTV footage within 45 days, asking, “What are they hiding?”
Khera remained non-committal on seeking a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe or legal action, saying, “We’ll discuss with INDIA bloc allies in the next two to three days for a joint strategy.” He emphasized the collapse of constitutional institutions like the EC over the past decade, alleging complicity in voter list manipulation to favor the BJP. The Congress’s Empowered Action Group (EAGLE) reported 40 lakh new voters added in Maharashtra within five months before the 2024 Assembly elections, compared to 32 lakh over five years, with many allegedly voting for the BJP-led Mahayuti.
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The issue, amplified by a dinner meeting hosted by Gandhi on August 7 with 50 leaders from 25 INDIA bloc parties, including Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar, and Uddhav Thackeray, saw a united front against the EC’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar. Gandhi’s PowerPoint presentation highlighted duplicate voter IDs across states and constituencies, calling it a “bizarre violation” of electoral integrity. Trinamool Congress echoed these concerns, alleging a “scam” in duplicate voter IDs, dismissing the EC’s claim that identical IDs across states don’t enable fraud.
Congress launched a missed call campaign on August 10 to engage citizens in scrutinizing voter data, with Khera noting that independent citizens and experts are uncovering discrepancies. Posts on X reflect public outrage, with users demanding transparency and digital voter lists. The INDIA bloc plans a protest march from Parliament to the EC office on August 11, following a dinner hosted by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, to press for accountability.
Khera warned the government, saying, “They better be nervous,” as the opposition vows to pursue legal, political, and public remedies to safeguard India’s electoral democracy from what they call a deliberate BJP-EC collusion.
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