Rahul, Kharge attack BJP over attempts to steal Bihar polls

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused the BJP of making attempts to "steal the elections in Bihar, as it did in Maharashtra" last year. Addressing the party’s 'Samvidhan Bachao Samavesh' in Bhubneshwar, the Congress leaders also accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of not doing its duty but working for the interest of the BJP. “We will prevent the BJP and ECI from stealing the elections in Bihar," Gandhi said.

The Congress has been alleging that the manipulation of the voters' list helped a BJP-led alliance win the Maharashtra assembly polls in 2024. Gandhi alleged that Odisha’s new BJP government is run by industrialist Gautam Adani, for whom, the leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha claimed, the Rath Yatra in Puri was halted.

At closed door meetings after the public meeting, the party top brass, in a message to the Odisha leaders, said that they must shun infighting and work in tandem to unseat the BJP. Attacking the saffron party, Gandhi said at the rally: “Like Maharashtra, attempts are being made to steal the elections in Bihar. The BJP is attacking our Constitution across the country… At a meeting yesterday, the INDIA bloc decided to prevent the BJP and ECI from stealing the elections in Bihar." The assembly polls in Bihar are due later this year. Kharge, in his speech, called the Maharashtra administration a “Chori government”.

Gandhi alleged that the BJP runs the government for capitalists and not the common people. “Nowhere in the Constitution it is written that the country belongs to Adani, Ambani or billionaires only, but the present government is doing everything for 5-6 capitalists at the cost of common people,” he said. Gandhi alleged that Lord Jagannath’s Rath Yatra in Puri was also halted for “Adani and his family”. This indicates the influence of Adani on the Odisha government, he claimed.

Both Kharge and Gandhi asserted that the Congress government had implemented the forest rights act and PESA, but the BJP government is giving land, forest and water to corporates. The party will enforce these laws and ensure that tribals get their land, they said. “Whoever the government is attacking, oppressing, Congress will fight for them, I will stand by them,” Gandhi said.