During a press meet on Sunday, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav amusedly advised Chirag Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party to marry soon, calling him elder brother.
He also commented that his father, Lalu Prasad Yadav, has been suggesting the same for quite some time. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi joined the merriment saying that talks on this are already in progress. The moment was completely out of the usual political atmosphere.
This was the setting for the banter, as the two had also resumed their Voter Adhikar Yatra, first by Rahul Gandhi and then by Tejashwi Yadav, early on Sunday. Both are riding motorcycles, leading the campaign that is aimed at pointing out the alleged defects in Bihar's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Opposition is always saying that the process is flawed and harming people's democratic rights.
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At an interaction with the media in Araria, Rahul Gandhi fired charges of collusion of the Election Commission of India (ECI) with the ruling BJP. He alleged that millions of names had been struck down from voter lists, while the BJP had kept quiet on the issue, which he termed evidence of institutional bias. Rahul called the SIR process "institutionalized format of stealing votes," adding that the Opposition shall not allow stealing elections in Bihar.
Supporting Rahul's criticism, Tejashwi Yadav called the Election Commission routinely impassioned. Terming the institution as 'Godi Commission', he asserted that the institution is now an extension of the BJP.
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He argued that the Yatra was not just about electoral rolls but also about the rights to the Constitution and citizenship, democracy and vote. Yadav added that even within villages, trust erosion in the ECI is visible.
The 16-day Yatra will span 1,300 km and 20 districts, culminating in Patna on September 1. This is not merely a protest against the alleged irregularities for the Opposition; it is a symbolic struggle against what they describe as an attempt to institutionalize 'vote chori'.
As much as marriage and humor can be funky seasons, so much severest comment made about stealing from electoral institutions. These are the two-in-one colors of Indian politics personal and deeply political.
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