Amid Bihar introspection calls, Congress focuses on 'vote chori'

NEW DELHI: After the decimation in Bihar, Congress has upped the ante on "vote chori" as the issue of focus, with the brass collectively slamming SIR on Sunday as an "attempt to manipulate" voters' lists, and packing the party schedule with protests. This has put in shade the demonstrations by Congress members in Patna who are accusing election managers of bungling ticket distribution, and the general dissenting voices seeking "introspection" on the defeat.

On Sunday, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi slammed the "hasty" special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the wake of growing cases of deaths of BLOs.


Rahul said, "Chaos has been wrought upon the country in the name of SIR. Sixteen BLOs have lost their lives in three weeks. Heart attacks, stress, suicide - SIR is not a reform, it is an imposed oppression." He said citizens were having to find their names in 22-year-old voter lists running into thousands of pages, and this was aimed at tiring out genuine voters into giving up so that "vote chori" continued unabated. "This is not a failure, it is a conspiracy; democracy is being sacrificed to protect power," Rahul said.

Kharge said the "hasty SIR" was reminiscent of unplanned "demonetisation" and "lockdown".

Congress on Sunday directed its state units to observe upcoming "samvidhan divas" on Nov 26 as "samvidhan bachao divas" over SIR. Congress has already announced a mass rally in the capital on Dec 14 to mark the culmination of its nationwide "signature campaign" against "vote chori".

Amid the unifocal agenda, the party has not moved to look at the Bihar election management after the massive defeat, an issue that is riling many within. Facing criticism are AICC in-charge Krishna Allavaru and the state brass but also the main strategists. It is felt that concern over SIR can go along with a serious relook at how the party contests elections, which could pave the way for a rethink that helps Congress in the future.

The fact that Congress lost at least four elections that it was expected to win in the last couple of years has caused unrest among many who were hoping for "honest analysis" in the wake of the performance in Bihar. "How will we improve if we don't look at our mistakes," said a neta, who stated that airing dissenting opinions was not going to matter anymore.

The review meeting held by the top brass the day after the Bihar results blamed "electoral irregularities" for the disastrous outcome - viewed as the reason why not many dissenting voices have come out barring those given in the immediate wake of the defeat. "We don't think anyone at the AICC even took note of those demonstrations in Patna," a key party manager said.
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