NEW DELHI: The high-decibel “vote chori” campaign led by Rahul Gandhi, which had united the opposition cutting across party lines last year, now seems to have created a divide between them. This, after Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee claimed that the Congress and some other regional parties had failed to understand how the game of “vote chori” was happening through the process of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls under the watch of the Election Commission. The Trinamool leader also questioned the approach of these parties as he asserted that the “fight against vote chori was on the ground at the booth level and not on social media and TV channels.” The Congress reacted sharply to his remarks. And the charge was led by West Bengal leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who has been one of the strongest critics of Mamata’s Trinamool Congress. Adhir accused Abhishek, who is the nephew of Mamata Banerjee, of following Rahul Gandhi by walking on the path shown by the former Congress president to take credit. “Everyone in India and even across the world knows that it is Rahul Gandhi who had exposed “vote chori” in elections and attacked the Election Commission and it was his sustained campaign that even forced the Supreme Court to intervene at least five times in the process of SIR. This nephew of Bengal is now trying to copy the agenda of Rahul Gandhi and take credit,” Adhir said, attacking Mamata’s nephew.Chowdhury, who is a former West Bengal Congress president, also alleged that Mamata’s nephew always attacked and abused the Congress while not saying anything against the BJP. “When he was called for questioning by the ED, he came out and attacked the Congress, not the ED or the BJP. Now, he went to the ECI office, and then, as he stepped out, he again abused the Congress. Let people see for themselves who he is working for. He doesn’t say a single word against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),” Adhir said.Congress’s reaction came after Abhishek Banerjee claimed that “vote chori” was happening through the electoral rolls and not the EVMs.“Vote chori is happening in voter lists through the electoral rolls and not in the EVMs.If the Congress and other parties could have caught this game, the BJP would have lost all the states it won last year. Such high strike rates of BJP in so many states were not a coincidence. Congress, AAP, RJD could not understand the game,” claimed Abhishek Banerjee.He claimed that opposition parties are failing to understand what “algorithms and software are being run to disenfranchise and remove 50 lakh to 1 crore voters” and said if this is not happening, the “poll panel should release a list of 1.36 crore logical discrepancies.”Abhishek also went on to question the approach of these parties in highlighting the “vote chori” allegations. “Those who think that elections can be won by making a few strong remarks on TV channels have got it wrong. The fight is on the ground and you have to fight at the booth level to prevent it,” he said.Clearly, this was a strong message to the Congress, especially Rahul Gandhi, who was the first to make “vote chori” allegations and tried very hard to make it an election issue in Bihar, but failed.Led by Abhishek, the Trinamool Congress has unleashed an all-out offensive against the Election Commission. The Trinamool leader has locked horns with CEC Gyanesh Kumar over the process of SIR and has asserted that his party will not accept the electoral roll if the discrepancies are not removed.“Our position is unambiguous and non-negotiable: The entire list of voters branded under the vague and arbitrary label of ‘Logical Discrepancy’ must be published immediately, with clear Assembly-constituency-wise and category-wise break-ups. The criteria, methodology, and legal authority used to create this category must be placed in the public domain without delay,” the Trinamool has said after a heated meeting with the Election Commission on Wednesday.
