New Delhi: Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi will Sunday begin his 16-day-long ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ from Sasaram in poll-bound Bihar.
The Yatra will cover 1,300 kilometres and will conclude with a mega rally in Patna September 1, where leaders of various INDIA parties would attend.
Sharing details of his Yatra in a post on X, Gandhi said, “16 days. 20+ districts. 1,300+ kms. We are coming among the people with the Voter Rights Yatra.”
“This is the fight to protect the most fundamental democratic right – ‘one person, one vote.’ Join us in Bihar to save the Constitution,” Gandhi said.
Party spokesperson Pawan Khera told reporters that this Yatra will be yet another milestone in the democratic history of India.
“Whenever Rahul Gandhi has embarked upon such a march, democracy has turned a new page,” he said, adding that “The Yatra will be a historic journey, which will prove to be a milestone in the fight for the existence of all of us”.
Giving details, he said, besides Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav, other partners of the INDIA bloc will also be part of the Yatra.
Khera alleged that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls had exposed the BJP’s designs to disenfranchise lakhs of voters belonging to the Dalit, Adivasi and minority communities, the poor and daily wagers.
He alleged that it was a conspiracy to not only steal the votes, but also steal the identity.
“Today they will snatch the underprivileged people’s right to vote, tomorrow they will refuse them the share in government schemes like free food and housing,” he warned, while claiming that the conspiracy was much deeper.
Training his guns on the Election Commission (EC), Khera said, the EC is becoming like one of the “train bogeys” of the so-called “double engine”, asserting that it is not acceptable and the Congress will not let that happen.
“The Election Commission becoming just a compartment of this ‘double engine’ — this is something we will not accept. We are fighting against this and will continue to do so in the future.
“We urge the people of Bihar that this is a journey for your rights and entitlements. Join this journey so that democracy can find direction from Bihar,” he said.
Khera said that after the people of Bihar, activists, and the Congress and INDIA bloc workers raised their voice against the SIR, the EC was forced to do a course correction.
He said it was only after the intervention by the Supreme Court that the national poll body was compelled to address the concerns of common people and voters.
The ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ is aimed at ensuring awareness and alertness among the common people so that the Modi government’s conspiracy to deny voting rights to the people of Bihar does not fructify, the Congress leader asserted.
PTI
