When Union Home Minister Amit Shah confidently predicted that the BJP would rule India for 40 to 50 years, many may have brushed it off as political bravado. But Rahul Gandhi, now in Bihar leading the Voter Adhikar Yatra, has a different interpretation — and it’s not a flattering one.
In a charged address in Madhubani, Gandhi asked a simple yet pointed question:
“How does Amit Shah know his party will stay in power for half a century?”
The answer, according to him, lies in what he calls “vote chori” — a systematic, nationwide manipulation of electoral rolls. And this, he claimed, began in Gujarat, spread nationally in 2014, and has now reached across various states.
Rahul Gandhi didn’t mince his words:
“I don’t make baseless allegations. I speak with facts. And the truth is out before the nation — the BJP is stealing votes.”
He accused the BJP government of robbing citizens incrementally — “first the vote, then the ration card, and then their land.” The fight to save democracy, he said, is not just about elections but about identity, rights, and survival.
Joining him, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra sharpened the narrative further, turning PM Modi’s old election jibe against him.
“Narendra Modi said Congress would steal your buffalo. But the truth is — Narendra Modi is stealing your vote.”
She reminded the public that the right to vote is the foundation of democracy — and if that collapses, then everything else goes too: jobs, public institutions, rights, and even citizenship.
The Heart of the Matter: “Vote Chori”
The Congress party has been intensifying this allegation since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, citing suspicious voter deletions and additions — especially in states like Karnataka, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh.
In Karnataka’s Mahadevapura constituency alone, Congress claims over one lakh “fake votes” helped swing the result in BJP’s favour.
The Election Commission, for its part, has dismissed the accusations as “baseless” and “misleading.” It has demanded Gandhi submit concrete proof — not just statements. But here too, questions arise. If voter rolls are vetted at the booth level by agents from all parties, how are such alleged discrepancies going unnoticed — or ignored?
Who Controls the Vote, Controls the Nation
This isn’t just a war of words. This is a tug-of-war for democracy’s steering wheel. The BJP says it has the people’s mandate. The Congress now claims that the very mandate is being engineered.
Amit Shah’s 2017 comment, made in Madhya Pradesh, is now being scrutinized under this lens:
“We have not come to power for 5-10 years, but for at least 50 years. We must bring major changes in the country through power.”
Gandhi says this wasn’t foresight, but foreknowledge — enabled by vote manipulation.
As the Voter Adhikar Yatra moves across Bihar, one thing is clear — the “vote chori” debate isn’t going away. The real question is: will this be a turning point in India’s democratic discourse, or just another chapter in its never-ending political blame game?
And most importantly, who speaks for the invisible voter whose name vanished from the list?
