Cong to hold rally over ‘vote theft’ at Ramlila Maidan today

The Congress is set to take its allegation of large-scale ‘vote chori’ out of Parliament and onto the streets, with a major rally planned at Ramlila Maidan on Sunday, directly challenging the Union government and the Election Commission over what it claims are systematic attempts to undermine the electoral process.

The rally, to be led by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi, is being projected by the party as a turning point in its campaign on electoral integrity. Several top leaders, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh and Sachin Pilot, are expected to be present, with former party chief Sonia Gandhi also likely to attend.

Senior leaders will gather at the party’s Indira Bhawan headquarters before travelling together to Ramlila Maidan, underlining the leadership’s attempt to present a united front on the issue.

The Congress has claimed that it has already mobilised public support on a large scale, collecting around 5.5 crore signatures against what it describes as manipulation of votes. Party leaders say the memorandum, backed by these signatures, will be submitted to the President after the rally.

Venugopal, party’s general secretary in charge of organisation, said the issue had gained traction after Rahul publicly laid out what the Congress describes as evidence of electoral malpractice.

He said Rahul had openly challenged the Home Minister to respond to these allegations in a public debate, but no response had come so far.

According to Venugopal, the rally is meant to convert growing public discussion into sustained political pressure.

The protest follows a sharp confrontation in the Lok Sabha earlier this week during a debate on election reforms, where the Opposition and the government clashed over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and other alleged irregularities. Rahul used the debate to accuse the government of exerting influence over the Election Commission, arguing that such actions strike at the core of democratic institutions.

During the discussion, Rahul also pressed for a series of changes, including early access to voter lists in a machine-readable format for political parties, stricter rules on the preservation of CCTV footage, greater transparency around electronic voting machines and legal accountability for election commissioners.

Warning of the wider consequences, Rahul argued in Parliament that tampering with the voting process damages not just elections but the very idea on which the Republic is built.