Cong will hold ‘Vote Chor, Gaddi Chhod’ maha rally on Dec 14: Venugopal
New Delhi: Congress General Secretary and MP K. C. Venugopal on Saturday announced that the Congress will hold a ‘Vote Chor, Gaddi Chhod Maha Rally, on December 14 at 1:30 p.m. at Ramlila Maidan in the national Capital. He said the “spectre of vote chori” is the biggest danger facing Indian democracy today.
Venugopal took to social media platform X to make the announcement, stating, “The spectre of Vote Chori is the biggest danger looming over our democracy today. To send a message across the nation against these attempts to destroy our Constitution, the Congress will be holding the ‘Vote Chor, Gaddi Chhod Maha Rally, on December 14th (1.30 pm onwards) at Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi.”
He added, “We have received crores of signatures from every corner of India, rejecting the BJP-ECI’s nefarious tactics like adding bogus voters, deleting Opposition-inclined voters, and manipulating voter rolls at a mass scale. Not only that, every Indian has seen how the ECI bends rules, ignores Model Code of Conduct violations, and indulges in daylight bribery to help the BJP rig elections. The ECI, which was once a neutral umpire, is now a blatantly partisan player – completely destroying the very concept of a level playing field in elections.”
Venugopal further asserted, “We will not remain silent as this attack on the electoral system unfolds in front of our eyes. This Maha Rally is only the beginning of our fight to reclaim Indian democracy from the clutches of the Vote Chors.”
Meanwhile, on November 19, a group of more than 200 retired judges, bureaucrats, former Army officers, and diplomats had issued an open letter criticising the Congress and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi for his allegations against the Election Commission under the party’s ‘vote chori’ campaign.
The letter has 272 signatories, including 16 retired judges, 123 former bureaucrats, 133 retired Army officers, and 14 former ambassadors.
“We, the senior citizens of civil society, express our grave concern that India’s democracy is under assault, not by force, but by a rising tide of venomous rhetoric directed toward its foundational institutions. Some political leaders, instead of offering genuine policy alternatives, resort to provocative but unsubstantiated accusations as part of their theatrical political strategy,” the letter states.