MASSIVE SUPPORT TO VOTER ADHIKAR YATRA

· Sea of people throng Sasaram as Rahul Gandhi launches ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’

· Rahul Gandhi Says, BJP stealing election after election across country

· Asserts, fight is to save Constitution, people’s right to vote

· Modi undermining right to vote given by Constitution: Kharge

SASARAM (BIHAR) : 

A mammoth crowd turned Sasaram into a sea of tricolour today as Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi launched the historic ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ in the presence of senior INDIA bloc leaders, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, and former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav. Thousands lined the roads to greet him as he set out on the 16-day, 1,300-km march across 20 districts of Bihar.

Addressing the rally ahead of the yatra, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge exhorted upon the people of Bihar to rise against the vote theft and support Rahul Gandhi. He said, people of Bihar are capable of defeating the “vote thieves” as they have always done so since the freedom struggle of the country.

Referring to the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’, Kharge said, it was not for winning an election, but to save the Constitution, democracy and people’s right to vote. He pointed out how under a design, the Election Commission of India had removed 65 lakh voters from the electoral rolls. He said, the deleted voters mainly include those belonging to Dalit, Adivasi & minority communities, the backward classes, and other marginalised people.

Speaking on the occasion, Rahul Gandhi said, it was the battle to save the Constitution. He accused the RSS and the BJP of trying to “wipe out” the Constitution by stealing the elections. He said, the Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha elections in the country were being stolen.

Referring to the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, he said, it was the latest conspiracy to steal the Bihar elections, but the people of the state and the INDIA bloc will not let the Modi govt do that.

Citing the example of Maharashtra, he disclosed that while the INDIA bloc swept the Lok Sabha elections in the state, within four months, the same alliance was almost wiped out in the Assembly elections whereas the BJP-led alliance won a sweeping victory. This, he explained, was because between the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections, one crore votes were added in Maharashtra and all the new votes went to the BJP.

Rahul Gandhi also referred to the comprehensive case study of Mahadevapura assembly segment in Bengaluru Central parliamentary constituency in Karnataka, where over one lakh fake votes were found, through which the BJP managed to win the LS seat. He said this was happening everywhere in the country.

Gandhi reiterated his party’s commitment to carry out the caste census across the country and remove the fifty percent bar on reservations in the country. He said, although Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to the caste census under pressure, but he was sure that Modi govt would not do it seriously and sincerely. Nor will he remove the fifty percent ceiling on reservations, he observed.

Among those present were Lalu Prasad Yadav, KC Venugopal, Bhupesh Baghel, Tejashwi Yadav, Krishna Allavaru, Rajesh Ram, Shakeel Ahmad, Akhilesh Pratap Singh, Dipankar Bhattacharya and others.