“Has EC become BJP’s ‘election chori’ branch?” Rahul Gandhi on Bihar SIR

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on 17 July, Thursday, claimed that the Election Commission has been caught "red-handed" stealing votes in the name of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, and asked whether the poll body has completely become the BJP's “election chori branch”.

The EC has all along maintained that the revision, being held after 22 years, will cleanse the voters' list of ineligible people and duplicate entries, while still including those eligible to vote, as per the law.

Gandhi shared a post by Ajit Anjum, whose YouTube channel is running a series on special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.

"Election Commission in Bihar has been caught red-handed stealing votes in the name of 'SIR'. Work: just theft but name is 'SIR' and FIR will be lodged against the one who exposes it!" Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X.

'Is EC still 'Election Commission' or has it completely become BJP's 'Election Chori' branch?" the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha asked.

Anjum has been accused of spreading communal tensions in Begusarai district by the local administration.

He had denied the allegation and shared a screenshot of an FIR lodged against him.

Opposition parties have asserted that the ongoing exercise will disfranchise crores of eligible Indian citizens for the want of citizenship documents.

On Wednesday, 16 July, chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar thanked the eligible voters of Bihar for their active participation in the "much-needed" cleaning of the electoral rolls during SIR.

Kumar's remarks came in the backdrop of the Supreme Court hearing a clutch of pleas questioning the intent behind the SIR ahead of the assembly polls in the state later this year.