Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday called for the Lok Sabha and all state Assemblies to be dissolved, alleging that elections across the country were illegal and demanding fresh polls through ballot papers.
He claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and chief ministers in all states were elected through an illegal process.
Addressing reporters, Kharge said the ongoing SIR of the electoral roll had several irregularities and was weakening democracy. He said the opposition would continue its protests across the country against the exercise and what he described as the misuse of the electoral process.
“Today, the entire country is being run on illegal elections. Modi is an illegal Prime Minister, Shah is an illegal minister, and all the chief ministers who have been elected anywhere are illegal. All of them should be dissolved, elections should be held, and elections should be conducted through ballot papers,” he said.
Kharge also alleged that EVMs were being misused and said that “their own people” were saying so.
Referring to the INDIA bloc meeting held on September 30, Kharge said members of 20 parties and their legal cell had attended and agreed that the SIR was going wrong for the country. He said it was adversely affecting poor people, the uneducated, workers and particularly minorities.
He asked what kind of free and fair election it would be if 500 votes were removed from a booth, while attempts were now being made to add names.
Kharge alleged that many people, particularly members of the BJP and RSS, were going to wards, panchayats and villages where they wanted votes to be deleted and were filling forms there. He called it “completely wrong”.
Recalling earlier leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Lal Bahadur Shastri, PV Narasimha Rao and Rajiv Gandhi, he said none of them had done anything like this in a democracy.
“But the misuse that you are making is hurting our youth, poor people, Dalits and deprived sections,” he said. Kharge added that while an affluent person could somehow get his work done if something went wrong, a poor person would have to leave work and go to get it corrected or renewed.
Accusing Modi of destroying democracy, Kharge referred to Clause 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, under which, he said, the CEC and Election Commissioners were given immunity from legal action for decisions taken while in office.
“Therefore, Modi ji and his implementers have brought in a law and are destroying democracy. First, they changed the composition of the committee. Earlier, the Chief Justice of India, the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister were members of the committee. Then, through a law brought in 2023, they removed the Chief Justice and included a minister. Why? Because tomorrow, if the Chief Justice does not agree with them and a sincere and honest person occupies that position, then they would not be able to get the law passed or constitute the CEC,” he claimed.
Kharge said that under the new law, if the CEC or Election Commissioners committed any mistake, “there can be no inquiry against them anywhere — till death”, and alleged that this was how democracy was being destroyed.
Referring to a report by The Indian Express on the SIR, he said two members of the Election Commission had written to the Chief Election Commissioner 10 and 14 times respectively, but there was no impact.
“They cannot speak openly outside, but they expressed their views clearly,” he said, adding that if such things continued, elections could be conducted arbitrarily.
He said an all-party meeting had been called to decide on an agitation and that the first protest had begun in Delhi. Referring to the October 6 march by opposition MPs to the Election Commission in New Delhi, he said, “There will be a very big agitation on October 6, and I am going there tomorrow. We will continue to hold agitations every three or four days, and agitations are also taking place in every state.”
He added, “Our job is to awaken the people. And even after awakening them, if you continue saying ‘Modi, Modi’, then you want dictatorship,” while again insisting that elections should be held through ballot papers.
On the coming elections in Uttar Pradesh, Kharge said, “What can we do? Can we boycott? At least we are alive, and you are asking us. That too will go away.”
Asked whether the Congress would take the legal route, he said, “What can we do legally? The law is with them, the judiciary is in their hands. The CEC and the Election Commission are in their hands. The machine is being operated by them. It is operating according to their instructions. Votes are being changed at their behest. That is why Modi and Shah should first get out through this democracy.”
– Ends
