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New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday launched a sharp attack on the Election Commission (EC), accusing it of failing in its constitutional duty to uphold the principle of “one man, one vote” and alleging large-scale, systematic irregularities in the voter lists, particularly in Bihar.

Speaking to reporters in the Parliament House complex, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said the alleged manipulation of electoral rolls was not confined to one constituency. “There is not just one seat where there is ‘vote chori’ (vote theft), there are several seats. This is being done at the national level and in a systematic manner. The EC knows it and we know it too,” Gandhi claimed.

He added that earlier, there might not have been concrete evidence, but “now the evidence is there.”“The principle of ‘one man, one vote’ is the foundation of the Constitution. The EC must enforce it. They have not done their duty. We will protect the Constitution and continue to do so. We will not stop,” Gandhi asserted.

In a lighter but pointed remark, Gandhi alluded to the controversy over a centenarian voter in Bihar, saying, “There are unlimited cases like that… abhi picture baki hai.”

‘Minta Devi — 124 Not Out’ Becomes Protest Symbol
The political row intensified after the name of Minta Devi, allegedly a 124-year-old first-time voter from Bihar, appeared in the EC’s rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. The opposition alleges her case is just the tip of the iceberg.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said there were numerous instances where the addresses and names of voters and their relatives were fictitious.

On Tuesday morning, several MPs of the INDIA bloc gathered near Parliament’s Makar Dwar to protest against the SIR. Sporting white T-shirts emblazoned with Minta Devi’s photograph and the words “124 Not Out” on the back, the MPs raised slogans and demanded the exercise be rolled back.

The protest saw the participation of senior leaders including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party chief Sonia Gandhi, TMC’s Derek O’Brien, DMK’s T.R. Baalu, NCP(SP)’s Supriya Sule, along with members from the Left parties.

Congress MP Manickam Tagore alleged that under Chief Election Commissioner Rajeev Kumar and Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the EC had “become a department of the BJP.” “Minta Devi is shown as a first-time voter at 124 years old. The voter list is full of such fraud. The EC has become complicit,” he charged.

Logjam in Parliament Over Bihar Voter List
Ever since the Monsoon Session began on July 21, Parliament has seen repeated adjournments, with the SIR issue triggering a complete standstill except for discussions on Operation Sindoor. On Monday, the opposition escalated its protest with a march from Parliament to the EC headquarters. Led by Rahul Gandhi, Kharge, and Sharad Pawar, the leaders were stopped midway by police and briefly detained amid high drama.The opposition maintains that the voter roll revision in Bihar is a deliberate attempt to distort the electoral process ahead of future polls, while the EC has defended the SIR as a standard procedure to maintain the accuracy of the rolls.