Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has made a bombshell allegation against the Election Commission of India (ECI). On Thursday, he declared that his party has uncovered an “atom bomb” of evidence pointing to large-scale voter list manipulation. His fiery statements outside Parliament have intensified the ongoing political storm over electoral integrity.
Gandhi did not mince his words. “We dug deep because the EC wasn’t helping. What we found is an atom bomb. When it explodes, you won’t be able to see the Election Commission in India,” he warned. The Congress has long accused the ECI of bias, but these latest claims take the confrontation to a new level.
The controversy revolves around the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar. Opposition parties allege this is a BJP-backed move to strip voting rights from marginalized communities. Gandhi claims their investigation, spanning six months, reveals shocking irregularities. “There was a suspicion in the elections in Madhya Pradesh and the Lok Sabha, and it deepened in the Maharashtra assembly polls. At the state level, we believed there was a vote theft,” he stated.
According to Gandhi, over 10 million voters were fraudulently added to the rolls. He went further, accusing ECI officials of treason. “Whoever is doing this, from top to bottom in the ECI, we won’t spare you. You’re working against the nation. This is treason,” the Congress leader asserted.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge echoed these sentiments, framing it as an attack on democracy itself. “With the cooperation of the Election Commission, the BJP’s master plan to deprive crores in Bihar of their voting rights now seems to be ensnaring them,” he said. The INDIA bloc has vowed to escalate protests both inside and outside Parliament.
The ECI is set to publish draft electoral rolls for Bihar on Friday, adding urgency to the opposition’s demands. The Congress’s repeated accusations of the ECI acting as a “biased umpire” have fueled tensions, especially after Gandhi hinted last month at exposing vote-rigging methods.
This brewing crisis puts India’s election watchdog under unprecedented scrutiny. As political temperatures rise, all eyes are on how the ECI will respond to these explosive charges. With Gandhi promising an evidence-backed exposé, the coming days could redefine public trust in India’s electoral process.
Meanwhile, the INDIA bloc’s coordinated protests signal a hardened stance against what they call systemic disenfranchisement. Whether this leads to concrete reforms or deeper polarization remains to be seen.