Opinion | When Congress Wins, It's Democracy. When It Loses, It's Vote Chori

Mitta Vamsi Krishna,Siddhartha Chepuri

The Congress campaign is about building an alibi before the next defeat, and planting doubt in people's minds about the ballot itself

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On May 4, results came in from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, all three elections held on electoral rolls freshly cleaned under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The Congress-led UDF swept Kerala. Vijay’s TVK became the largest party in Tamil Nadu, and the Congress soon walked out on the DMK to back him. The BJP won 207 seats in Bengal.

The Congress celebrated the first two results. Only the third was “vote chori“.

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That one day sums up the whole campaign. Same revision, same Election Commission, same process. When the Congress wins, it is democracy. When it loses, the voter list becomes a crime scene.

The INDI Alliance has now carried this slogan all the way to Rashtrapati Bhavan. Its demands are simple: roll back SIR, remove the Chief Election Commissioner, and put back the “13 crore" names deleted. Before anyone signs on, it is worth asking what exactly they want put back.

Of those 13 crore entries, about 2.7 crore belong to voters who have died. Another 1.01 crore are duplicates, the same person registered twice, often in two states. Of the remaining 9.5 crore, the bulk, about 6.3 crore, have permanently moved to another constituency or state and are meant to vote where they now live. About 3 crore more could not be found at their registered address despite........

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