OPPOSITION parties of the INDIA Bloc on Friday raised the issue of “vote chori” with President Droupadi Murmu and urged her to exercise her powers in seeking the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, suspension of SIR, and repeal of all Assembly elections held in the last two years. In a memorandum submitted to President Murmu, the INDIA bloc parties also demanded the repeal of a 2023 law providing life-long immunity to the CEC and election commissioners, and a return to paper ballots for all elections. They also demanded the restoration of 13.3 crore voters deleted “illegally” from the voter list, and repeal of all Assembly elections held in the last two years, in which conclusive evidence of “vote chori” had been found. Senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, National Conference Vice-President Omar Abdullah, CPI-M General Secretary M A Baby, CPI General Secretary D Raja, NCP-SCP leader Supriya Sule, RJD’s Manoj Jha, VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan and Samajwadi Party leader Rajeev Rai met the President as part of the

 

Opposition delegation. In the memorandum, the Opposition leaders said, the INDIA bloc MPs, representing more than 60 per cent of the country’s population, have approached her with grave alarm over the manner in which the entire election system and the democratic framework of India have been “subverted” by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to “steal” from crores of Indians their constitutional right to vote. “This has destroyed the very foundation of our democracy,” the memorandum said. “We have incontrovertible proof that ‘vote chori’ took place on a massive scale in election after election. The Assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Delhi and West Bengal were stolen. Both EVMs and electoral rolls have been completely manipulated by the BJP in several other Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

 

“Democracy is being murdered in broad daylight. This is a crime against the nation, with the Chief Election Commissioner blatantly cheating and lying to the Supreme Court to cover up this crime,” the INDIA bloc leaders said. They said that the ‘Right to Vote’ is the foundation for representative democracy enshrined in Article 326 of the Constitution and the Election Commission is its constitutional custodian, and not its proprietor. It also sought immediate suspension of the SIR exercise and immediate restoration of all 13.30 crore voters “illegally” deleted from electoral rolls, return to paper ballots for all elections, and repeal of all Assembly elections held over the last two years in which conclusive evidence of “vote chori” had been presented. Later, talking to reporters, Rahul Gandhi said he told the President that proof of ‘election chori’ is known to country as State after State has been “stolen”. In her remarks to the press, Banerjee said INDIA bloc is together and is strong and she thought the meeting was positive. Earlier, the INDIA bloc MPs met at the Central Hall of the Samvidhan Sadan and deliberated upon their strategy to take forward their plan for agitation