Gyanesh will go to jail: Rahul
New Delhi: Leader of Opposition (Lok Sabha) 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 said, calling the last Lok Sabha polls illegal.
“Votes were stolen in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Votes were stolen through EVMs and by tampering with the voter list,” he said. “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. He said the data of the Election Commission “is saying this”. The Congress leader cited what he had said about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic of 2020-21 to claim, “What I say always turns out to be true; doesn’t it?” “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.
Rahul Gandhi also accused the BJP’s ideological parent body RSS of taking control of the country’s institutions, “from education to investigative agencies”. “Because of this, farmers, labourers and youth do not get their rights,” he said.
Invoking Hindu mythology to describe the India he envisioned, Gandhi said, “Anyone can join ‘Shiv ji ki baraat’ (Lord Shiva’s wedding procession). No one is stopped. We want such an India.”
“We will not let democracy end. We will not let the Constitution be destroyed,” he said. “No matter how much money you have, you are not bigger than the Constitution. The Constitution is bigger than you,” Rahul Gandhi added, accusing the BJP of using money to dominate poll processes and institutions.
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.
Top Opposition leaders and supporters from across the country gathered at the venue for the INDIA bloc’s ‘Chalo Delhi’ protest march, raising concerns over the SIR exercise and alleged irregularities in electoral rolls. The march began from the Minto Road-Connaught Place junction and proceeded towards Ramlila Maidan. The gathering followed a public “impeachment” programme against the CEC held in the national capital on Saturday.