Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Thursday alleged with "100% certainty" that elections in India, including the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, were being rigged, and demanded the immediate resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, as the political row over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls deepened following reports of objections raised by two Election Commissioners.
Addressing a press conference, Gandhi described the vote as the foundation of India's constitutional order. "From the vote, which is supposed to be protected by the Election Commission, our Constitution gets its power. From the Constitution, our laws are made, and from our laws emerge our institutions. This is a chain, and this chain defines modern India," he said.
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Gandhi argued that if the vote is destroyed, the Constitution loses its power and ceases to function. "If our Constitution has been destroyed, our laws are illegal, and if our laws are illegal, our institutions are meaningless," he said.
Framing what he called the central question, Gandhi said the issue was larger than the ballot. "This is not just an attack on the vote. This is an attack on the idea, on the basic infrastructure, on the expression of every single Indian person," he said. "We have been saying it again and again that there is a problem with the vote."
Claiming that he had presented proof, Gandhi said there was "more than enough information" to establish "100 per cent certainty, not 99 per cent" that the Lok Sabha elections, the 2024 election and Assembly elections were being rigged. He said the people at the top of that list were those he called "the conspirators".
Addressing Kumar directly, Gandhi said the CEC's actions amounted to "an act against the Indian nation". "This is not just some small rigging of an election. This is an attack on the Constitution of India. This is an attack on the legal structure of our country, and you are the man who is supposed to ensure that the vote was protected," he said.
Gandhi demanded that Kumar resign immediately.
