Rahul Gandhi Claims ECI “Insiders” Are Leaking Him SIR “Malpractices”

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, while speaking at the I.N.D.I.A. bloc summit at New Delhi’s Constitution Club, which was attended on September 30 by most of the allies comprising 19-odd non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) political entities, told the summit, held to discuss an immediate political strategy following reports of the Election Commission of India's (ECI) alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, that several poll panel officials are “feeding” him information about malpractices and excesses in the poll panel.

More than three politicians who took part in the conclave to chart out the extended opposition’s plan of action against the ruling Narendra Modi-led government told Open that Gandhi Jr chose to “hyperventilate” about the political mood of the nation. According to them, the Congress heavyweight appealed to the participants that, contrary to popular belief, they were not fighting “insurmountable” obstacles and therefore they all must have “confidence” in themselves about seizing the moment in free India's political history.

Rahul Gandhi told the meeting attended by several top-notch opposition leaders and their representatives that there is “virtual panic” in both the corridors of power at the Centre and in the ECI about the irregularities in SIR, which he described as “vote chori (theft)” because it involved deletion of names of eligible voters in bulk to “ensure” a BJP win. He told the meeting that the system built by Modi since 2014, when he was first elected Prime Minister, and backed to the hilt by central agencies and other complicit players, is now “crumbling” in the wake of allegations amounting, the Congress leader said, to the destruction of Indian democracy.

These leaders also told Open that Rahul Gandhi said that the ruling government has already lost the psychological battle and that the spearheads of their campaigns are now “broken men” due to their unethical and undemocratic activities getting exposed.

“We have already won the psychological battle and therefore we need to stand united to fight the ruling coalition,” he said, emphasising that after years of BJP being in power, history is now set to narrate the opposition’s ballad as entities instrumental in saving this nation and its hard-earned democratic credentials.

The meeting, which unanimously sought either the resignation or sacking of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, whom they said was doing the Centre’s bidding and crushing Indian democracy, saw many members of the Opposition bloc speaking about the possible modalities of massive protests against the ruling coalition, according to several participants. They said the meeting had an air of euphoria amidst serious charges and protests against the ruling dispensation, which has been perceived as less formidable than before since the triumphant, recent Cockroach Janata Party (CJP)-led protests, backed by young people and Left parties, which resulted in the resignation of the previous Union education minister.

While Rahul Gandhi and the Congress were upbeat about the prospects of an opposition headway, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee spoke about the need to expand the scope of the alliance and went on to praise the leader of her arch rival, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPM, General Secretary MA Baby, for reaching out to all opposition parties, including TMC, for forging a popular front against the BJP-steered National Democratic Alliance, or NDA, in the wake of what he described as election fraud. She said animatedly at the meeting that she not only replied to Baby but called him on the phone, and when she realised that he was on a flight, she called up a Parliamentary leader of CPM to convey her message. Later, they both spoke to promote an understanding to fight the might of the ruling BJP at the Centre, according to several participants of the meeting.

Baby, for his part, suggested at the meeting that the opposition needed to stitch up an alliance that went beyond the ambit of political parties and to enlist support from civil society groups, artists, writers, cultural figures and all those opposed to what he termed the anti-democratic and authoritarian policies of the Centre, a suggestion that found instant endorsement from all members who participated in the I.N.D.I.A. bloc meeting, which touched upon various ways to rein in the ruling party through a series of agitations both in and outside Parliament. The Left parties, which are often at the forefront of anti-BJP protests notwithstanding their disproportionate and weak electoral strength, had already hit the streets demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, as they had done during the Jantar Mantar mobilisation and the farmers’ protests some years earlier.

The opposition grouping that met on September 30 decided to hold “save-democracy marches” across the country and in Delhi against ECI as protests gathered momentum against the reported “connivance and collaboration” of ECI with the government of India. The Opposition claims that ECI is at the beck and call of the government to ensure that it wins elections forever; the ruling front denies any wrongdoing, arguing that the opposition has complaints only when it loses polls.