New Delhi, 1 Aug

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday claimed that his party has an "atom bomb" of an evidence to prove "vote chori" by the Election Commission for the BJP and said that when it explodes the poll panel will have no place to hide anywhere in the country.

The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha also warned that those people in the EC who are involved in this, right from the top to the bottom, should remember that they will not be spared because the have indulged in "treason".

His remarks came on a day the Election Commission published the draft electoral rolls for Bihar, following the completion of the month-long Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise ahead of the upcoming assembly polls.

The opposition has been protesting in both Houses of Parliament against the SIR, alleging the EC's exercise was aimed at "disenfranchising voters" in Bihar ahead of the Assembly elections. They have been demanding a discussion on the issue in both Houses.

Asked about the issue, Gandhi said, "I have said 'vote chori' is happening and now we have open and shut proof that the Election Commission is involved in 'vote chori'," Gandhi told reporters in the Parliament House complex here.

"I am not saying this lightly. I am saying this with 100 per cent proof. As soon as we release it the whole country would know that EC is indulging in 'vote chori'. It is doing it for the BJP," he said.

Gandhi said his party had suspicions of poll irregularities in Madhya Pradesh assembly polls in 2023, then in the Lok Sabha polls last year and this went further in Maharashtra.

"We believe that vote theft has happened at the state level (in Maharashtra). Voter revision had happened and crore voters were added. Then we went into detail seeing that the EC is not helping and decided to dig deep into this," he said.

"We got our own investigation done, it took six months and what we have found is an atom bomb. When it explodes, the EC would have no place to hide anywhere in the country," Gandhi said.

The Congress leader also warned that those people in the EC who are involved in this, right from the top to the bottom, should remember that they will not be spared because they are "working against India".

"This is treason, nothing less than that. You may have retired, you may be anywhere, we will find you," Gandhi said.

The Congress leader's remarks came after he, along with leaders of several Opposition parties, wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, urging him to schedule a special discussion on the ongoing voter list revision in Bihar without any further delay.

In their letter to Birla, the Opposition MPs expressed deep concern over the SIR exercise.

The opposition has been protesting in both Houses of Parliament against the SIR, alleging the EC's exercise was aimed at "disenfranchising voters" in Bihar ahead of the Assembly elections. They have been demanding a discussion on the issue in both Houses.

The Congress on Thursday said it will expose the "outrageous rigging of voter rolls" by the Karnataka Election Commission on 5 August and asserted that it will not allow such electoral "malpractices" to go unchecked.

Congress general secretary in-charge organisation KC Venugopal said the party has planned a massive protest in Bengaluru led by former party chief Rahul Gandhi against this fraud.

After reviewing the preparations for the protest, Venugopal had said, "On 5th August, we will expose the outrageous rigging of voter rolls done by the Karnataka Election Commission."