Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) [India], July 11 : Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday called the Bharatiya Janata Part "chori ki sarkar, choron ki sarkar" (thieves forming a stolen government) in Maharashtra by manipulating voter rolls, and a similar manipulation of electoral rolls is happening with the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar ahead of the elections.
While speaking at the 'Samvidhan Bachao Samavesh' event in Odisha's Bhubaneswar, Kharge said that out of the 7 crore voters in Bihar, 2 crore voters will be left out of the electoral rolls due to the ongoing SIR, and appealed to the people to "oust the traitors and teach them a lesson."
"There is a 'chori ki sarkar', 'choron ki sarkar' in Maharashtra. 85 lakh voters were changed and then BJP Govt came to power there. Similarly in Bihar, out of 7 crore voters there, 2 crore voters are being cancelled," the Congress president said.
Calling for people to vote out the Bharatiya Janata in Bihar, the Rajya Sabha MP added, "Do you want such a government, such people? Will this safeguard democracy? We should oust traitors and teach them a lesson."
The claim of lakhs of voters being added in Maharashtra's electoral has been repeatedly brought up by Congress, including party leader Rahul Gandhi, who has demanded answers from the Election Commission of India and asked them to publish the electoral rolls in machine readable format for parties to analyse. Rahul Gandhi claims that the alleged discrepancy happened as more than 70 lakhs voters were added in the electoral rolls between the Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly elections.
Rahul Gandhi, who also addressed the event in Bhubaneswar earlier today, accused the Election Commission of India of "hatching a conspiracy" for "chunav chori (election theft)" in Bihar. Claiming that the ECI is working "as a BJP wing"
"BJP is attacking the constitution. Yesterday I was in Bihar. Just like 'chunav chori' was done in Maharashtra, similar attempts are being made to do "chunav chori" in Bihar. EC has hatched a new conspiracy for 'chunav chori'. EC is working as a BJP wing, it is not doing its own job," Lok Sabha's leader of Opposition said.
"In Maharashtra, between Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections, 1 crore new voters were added. Nobody knows who were these voters and where did they come from. We told EC several times to provide us with the voter list and videography. But EC does not provide us with the same. They are going to do the same 'chori' in Bihar, that was done in Maharashtra," he added.
The Congress leader also visited Bihar on July 9 to attend the Bihar Bandh rally, where the issue of the Bihar SIR was also raised, along with party's alliance partner Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
The Supreme Court allowed the Election continue with its exercise of conducting a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar. A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi, while allowing the process to be continued, asked the ECI to consider allowing Aadhaar, ration cards, and electoral photo identity cards as admissible documents to prove voter identity during the process. The Revision of electoral rolls is expected to be finished by July 25.