New Delhi, Sept 29: Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Tuesday met to discuss the vote chori amid the Election Commission’s SIar exercise alleging vote chori and sought resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that the vote chori cannot happen without his backing.
According to a source, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said at the meeting that all leaders must move forward with confidence.
He said that the party must fight firmly on the issue of SIR (Special Intensive Revision).
He also said that party leaders must take to the ground with complete confidence and raise the issue among the public and all leaders must work to finish the job.
Rahul Gandhi also levelled serious allegations against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
The source said that, the Rae Bareli MP said that Gyanesh Kumar could not function without the protection of the Prime Minister.
The source alleged that whatever Gyanesh Kumar was doing had the backing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
Another party insider said that Rahul Gandhi also spoke about the alleged irregularities in the voter list.
He said that earlier, only 20 per cent of people believed that “vote theft” was taking place, but now 80 per cent of the people in the country believe that votes are being stolen.
Rahul Gandhi made these remarks in the context of the Congress party’s allegations concerning the electoral process and voter lists.
Meanwhile, Congress General Secretary and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also expressed her views on the issue of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar during the meeting.
A source said that she said that Gyanesh Kumar must resign.
In a sharp jibe, she asked how Gyanesh Kumar could possibly refuse to resign.
The Congress has already been demanding Gyanesh Kumar’s removal from office.
The Congress has intensified its protest against the Election Commission over issues related to SIR and voter lists. The CWC meeting was also convened to decide the party’s future strategy on these issues.
Meanwhile, the CWC resolution also demanded the immediate resignation of the CEC, the suspension of the SIR of the electoral rolls and the restoration of the names it says have been deleted, claiming the exercise has “wiped out” 13.30 crore voters.
In its resolution, the CWC said the CEC had forfeited “all moral and institutional authority” and questioned the constitutional validity of the roll revision that has already removed, by its reckoning, 13 crore 30 lakh Indians from the electoral rolls.
The resolution put forth three demands — the immediate resignation of the CEC, who it says has “forfeited all moral and institutional authority”; the immediate suspension of the SIR in view of “serious concerns regarding the integrity and transparency of the electoral rolls being prepared through the SIR, as well as the constitutional validity of the SIR process itself”; and the immediate restoration of the 13.30 crore names removed from the rolls.
Arguing the constitutional case, the CWC said a process that shifts “the burden onto citizens to prove their own eligibility”, is executed in haste without transparent safeguards and results in “arbitrary mass-disenfranchisement” cannot be reconciled with the guarantee of equality under Article 14 or universal adult suffrage under Article 326.
The resolution cites recent reports that the poll panel has been reduced to a “one-man show”, with the CEC taking decisions without due consultation with the other Election Commissioners, and says two Election Commissioners raised 14 objections over ten months, citing “unauthorised” and “illegal” changes to Form 6 used in the SIR.
A medianreport had claimed that Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi objected on record at least 14 times over the past 10 months to SIR decisions they said were taken without their knowledge or recommendation.
The unprecedented concentration of control over electoral rolls in the hands of a few BJP-backed officials during the nationwide SIR serves as the last nail in the coffin of the ECI’s credibility,” the resolution read.