'Vote bachao, desh bachao': Congress takes the 'vote chori' fight to the streets

NEW DELHI: The Congress will take its "vote chori" charge to the streets this month, launching a nationwide "Vote bachao, desh bachao" (save the vote, save the country) campaign aimed at helping voters struck off the rolls during the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) get re-enrolled. The party will invite the DMK and the Aam Aadmi Party to an INDIA bloc rally on November 1, as part of a three-phase agitation announced by Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal. The first phase is already under way: district-level demonstrations and "Save Democracy" marches from October 2 to 8, held in coordination with INDIA bloc partners. The second phase — block-level programmes from October 10 to 20 — will feature bike and cycle rallies, padyatras and the distribution of pamphlets detailing what the party calls vote theft, including during Navratri gatherings. The campaign will culminate in Delhi Chalo marches and a rally in the national capital on November 26. A third phase, from October 25 to November 25, will carry the fight to the village level: Congress "Vote Rakshaks" (vote guards) will visit the homes of people the party says were deleted from the rolls and hold chaupals — village assemblies — with them. The street campaign follows the Congress Working Committee's September 29 resolutions demanding the immediate resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the suspension of the SIR process and the restoration of what the party claims are 13.3 crore deleted names. The party alleges the exercise has disproportionately hit the country's poorest — women, migrants, Muslims and Dalits — and reduced the poll panel to a "one-man show". The Supreme Court on Monday declined to suspend the chief election commissioner, observing it could not pass orders on newspaper reports alone, but issued notices to the Centre, the Election Commission and the CEC, giving them a week to respond. The court also made it clear it had not approved any modified version of Form 6, the form used for enrolling new voters during the SIR. "Any modified Form 6 has not been approved by us. Let's be clear," Chief Justice Surya Kant said. The BJP has countered that the court's decision to issue notices only demonstrates that democratic institutions are functioning. Party spokesperson Sambit Patra argued the court had neither called Form 6 illegal nor rejected it. For a party girding for the Bihar assembly polls, the campaign is both protest and groundwork: every restored name, the Congress believes, is a vote that was stolen.