Kiren Rijiju and Rahul Gandhi
NEW DELHI: Union minister Kiren Rijiju reamed Rahul Gandhi out in a veiled dig over his “vote chori” charge, claiming the “credibility of the spoiled brat is hitting a new low!”Sharing a clip of CSDS psephologist Sanjay Kumar apologising for his Maharashtra data mishap, the Union parliamentary affairs minister said: At least, CSDS head has apologised! How can someone lie so publicly and do not tender apology? Credibility of the spoiled brat non-serious political leaders are hitting new low!”Sanjay Kumar, who is co-director at Lokniti-CSDS, apologised on Tuesday for his post on the Maharashtra elections, which claimed a significant dip in the number of voters in two assembly constituencies compared to the Lok Sabha election held just months earlier. However, CSDS’s data set off a political storm, with the opposition, particularly the Congress-led INDIA bloc, alleging that vote theft had occurred in the elections.Escalating his “vote chori” campaign against the BJP, Rahul Gandhi on Friday mounted a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP-led NDA government, accusing them of attempting ‘vote theft’ in Bihar and betraying the country’s youth with policies that ‘destroy employment opportunities.'”The entire country now knows that Narendra Modi steals votes,” Gandhi alleged. Addressing a massive public rally in Bhagalpur during the ongoing ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’, Gandhi alleged that the Modi government and the Election Commission were working together to snatch away citizens’ constitutional right to vote. “The SIR is an attempt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP and the EC to steal your votes. They are trying their best to snatch your voting rights. The ‘vote chor’ came to Gayaji, but he did not say even a word on his government’s attempt to steal votes with the help of the EC,” Gandhi said. He alleged that though PM Modi visited Bihar earlier in the day, he remained silent on alleged irregularities in the Maharashtra and Karnataka elections as well as the crisis in Manipur. He attacked Modi for maintaining “silence” on irregularities in elections. “The SIR is an attempt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP and the EC to steal your votes. They are trying their best to snatch your voting rights. The ‘vote chor’ came to Gayaji, but he did not say even a word on his government’s attempt to steal votes with the help of the EC,” the Congress leader said. Invoking the Constitution, Gandhi said all citizens are equal and every person has one vote, but alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Election Commission are attacking it by canceling votes. He cited the case of a voter who told him his vote was canceled by the EC after he had voted for Congress in the Lok Sabha elections. “Constitution guarantees equal rights to everyone; but PM and EC are snatching people’s right to vote,” he alleged.
