Synopsis:
Vote Chori takes center stage as Rahul Gandhi launches a 16-day ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar, challenging alleged electoral roll irregularities under the SIR exercise and rallying public resistance to voter disenfranchisement.
By Dr. Mohammad Farooque
Vote Chori is no longer just a rhetorical charge—it has become the defining phrase in Bihar’s political discourse this month. Rahul Gandhi’s announcement of a 16-day ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’, starting August 17 from Sasaram, marks an escalation in the Congress party’s confrontation with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. Allegations are grave: thousands of legitimate voters, some shockingly labeled as “dead,” have found their names missing from the rolls.
In a sharply produced video, Gandhi is seen sipping tea with these “dead” citizens—ordinary people whose democratic rights have been erased on paper. His sarcasm, thanking the Election Commission for the “unique experience,” underlines both the absurdity and the severity of the situation. It is a political gambit that mixes empathy with mockery, spotlighting a bureaucratic process now accused of weaponizing clerical errors against the electorate.
While the tea-with-the-dead moment has grabbed headlines, the underlying figures are anything but humorous. In just one panchayat, at least 50 voters have allegedly been struck off the rolls. Across Bihar, the pattern appears systematic enough to warrant fears of mass disenfranchisement. Gandhi’s claim that the Election Commission is withholding deletion data feeds into a deeper narrative—that transparency in electoral administration is being deliberately compromised.
Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal calls the SIR “dangerous” and vows to make the fight against Vote Chori a mass movement. The yatra’s route, covering 24 districts and nearly a quarter of Bihar’s Assembly constituencies, is strategically mapped to overlap with regions reporting the highest deletion complaints. This is not merely protest politics; it is targeted political cartography.
The Congress leadership is not confining the campaign to Bihar. A nationwide candlelight vigil on August 14, state-level rallies between August 22 and September 7, and a month-long signature drive from September 15 aim to keep Vote Chori in the public eye well into the election season. By tying the issue of voter deletions to the broader theme of democratic erosion, the party hopes to energize both its base and fence-sitters wary of institutional decay.
For Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee, the yatra is also a test of organisational muscle. As veteran leader Kishore Kumar Jha points out, the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra had earlier cut through constituencies that later fell to the Opposition alliance. The unspoken hope is that this yatra will replicate that electoral chemistry in the run-up to the Assembly polls.
The SIR controversy has peeled back an uncomfortable truth: the integrity of elections does not hinge solely on ballot boxes and polling day security, but on the meticulous upkeep of the voter list. Any manipulation—be it accidental or deliberate—strikes at the heart of representative democracy. In that sense, Vote Chori is not just a catchy slogan; it is an accusation that demands serious, transparent answers from the Election Commission.
Rahul Gandhi’s yatra will be judged not only by its turnout or media coverage, but by whether it can force institutional accountability. In a year when Bihar’s voters will choose their Assembly, the fight is about more than seats—it’s about the sanctity of the vote itself. And in that battle, there is no middle ground.
