300+ Opposition MPs to March to EC Over ‘Vote Theft’ Allegations, Bihar Voter Roll Row

Over 300 MPs from 25 opposition parties will march from Parliament to the Election Commission of India (ECI) headquarters in New Delhi on Monday to protest alleged “vote chori” in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.

Parties including Congress, Samajwadi Party, TMC, DMK, AAP, Left parties, RJD, NCP(SP), Shiv Sena (UBT) and National Conference are expected to join the rally, scheduled to begin at 11:30 am from Parliament’s Makar Dwar.

Delhi Police, however, is unlikely to allow the march to reach the EC office, located less than 2 km away, and says no formal request for permission has been submitted.

The protest will be held without the INDIA bloc banner to accommodate AAP, which exited the alliance last month but still has 12 MPs. According to TMC MP Sagarika Ghose, the rally is an Opposition programme and the AAP has been invited to participate. Posters and banners in English, Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, and Marathi will be used to highlight the Bihar SIR exercise and alleged voter fraud.

On Sunday, Congress launched a web portal for citizens to support the campaign and demand that the EC release digital voter rolls. Rahul Gandhi wrote on X, “Vote Chori is an attack on the foundational idea of ‘one man, one vote.’ A clean voter roll is imperative for free and fair elections.”

Gandhi recently alleged that over 100,000 votes were “stolen” in Karnataka’s Mahadevapura assembly segment during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections through five forms of manipulation. The Election Commission has dismissed the claims as “incorrect” and asked Gandhi to submit his data under oath.