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New Delhi: In a pointed swipe at the Election Commission, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said he had the “unique experience” of having tea with voters from Bihar who have been officially declared “dead” — despite being alive and well.

Seven residents from Bihar’s Raghopur constituency, represented by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, met the Leader of Opposition at his Delhi residence. They narrated how their names had been struck off the electoral rolls during the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, which reportedly removed the names of over 65 lakh voters ahead of the state polls.

“There have been many interesting experiences in life, but I never got the chance to have tea with ‘dead people’. For this unique experience, thank you, Election Commission!” Gandhi wrote in Hindi on X, also sharing a video of the interaction. In the clip, he jokes that the group should explore Delhi while they can, as “the dead can’t even be charged tickets.”

According to the visitors — Ramikbal Ray, Harendra Ray, Lalmuni Devi, Vachiya Devi, Lalwati Devi, Punam Kumari, and Munna Kumar — they only discovered their “deceased” status during the SIR exercise. Despite completing the required paperwork, their names were removed without notice, they alleged. They also appeared before the Supreme Court earlier in the day, which is hearing petitions against the SIR process in Bihar.

In a statement, the Congress accused the EC of “political disenfranchisement in plain sight” and claimed that the deletions were not clerical errors but deliberate moves to suppress voters. It alleged that the EC had not made public the full list of voters declared dead, migrated, or otherwise removed, and that party workers had accessed details only through informal channels at a handful of polling booths.  “These seven represent only a fraction of those unjustly deleted,” the statement read, drawing parallels with alleged ‘vote theft’ in Bengaluru. “When the living are struck off as dead, the death certificate is issued to democracy itself.”