Leader of Opposition (Lok Sabha) Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said Gyanesh Kumar will be removed as Chief Election Commissioner and be jailed eventually, alleging that votes were stolen in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections through the electronic voting machines (EVMs) and manipulation of voter lists.
“This theft of votes is no ordinary theft. This is the theft of every voice of India.
This is called treason,” Gandhi said at the INDIA bloc rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, speaking in Hindi. “Without Gyanesh Kumar, neither would Narendra Modi have become Prime Minister nor Amit Shah the Home Minister,” he argued, calling the last Lok Sabha polls illegal.
Meanwhile, BJP leader and Sambalpur MP Dharmendra Pradhan participated in the party’s ‘Loktantra Bachao, Arajakta Hatao’ (Save Democracy, End Anarchy) padayatra in Faridabad on Sunday, where he accused Rahul Gandhi and the Congress of losing faith in democratic institutions. “And I am telling every citizen and every youth of India: Gyanesh Kumar will be removed from the post of Chief Election Commissioner. Gyanesh Kumar will go to jail,” he declared. INDIA bloc leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, along with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, attended the rally organised against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Shekhawat asserted that the credibility of elections depended on the reliability of electoral rolls. “An election is important, and winning an election is also important, but the sanctity of the electoral process is equally important.
“Votes were stolen in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. “After the 2024 elections, 15 per cent of voters were removed. In 2024, there was a 3 per cent difference between us (INDIA bloc) and the (BJP-led) NDA. The 2024 election was illegal,” he argued.
Votes were stolen through EVMs and by tampering with the voter list,” he said. He said the data of the Election Commission “is saying this”. Former minister Pradhan was accompanied by Union Minister of State Krishan Pal Gurjar, Minister of State Rajesh Nagar, Haryana Sports Minister Gaurav Gautam, several MLAs and party workers during the march, organised as part of the BJP’s nationwide campaign to counter what it called “anarchy being spread by the Congress”. The electoral roll is the foundation of the process,” the minister said.
