(The article was originally published in Indian Express as a part of Dr Ram Madhav’s column titled Ram Rajya on October 31, 2026. Views expressed are personal.)
On this Sunday, the opposition parties, led by the Congress, planned a protest rally in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on the specious ground that the Election Commission had deleted crores of eligible voters in the name of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
It is interesting how the opposition kept changing its goalposts regarding the elections in India. They made a brouhaha over EVM tampering, alleging that EVMs with 99 percent battery level gave victory to the BJP while those with 60 or 70 percent battery level showed victory for the Congress. The Election Commission took pains to respond to this ludicrous claim stating that the battery status of the control unit of the EVM has absolutely no correlation to the outcome of the election. The CEC explained that brand new and un-reusable alkaline batteries are inserted in the EVMs and sealed in the presence of the polling agents of the candidates.
Then Rahul Gandhi and his party began chanting ‘vote chori’ – stealing of votes – without providing any valid proof. Last year, at a press conference, a journalist asked him “when and how” he realised that ‘vote chori’ was happening. Rahul’s answer was funny. “When I was 7 years old in 1977, Indiraji was prime minister. Everybody, including her, knew that they were losing. Feeling comes”, he claimed. That feeling can prove wrong once, he admitted, but insisted that “It can happen once. But not twice. At no cost the third and fourth time. There is something known as a feeling”. He went on to argue that in the last 2-3 elections, “our technical experts were telling that this was not possible. This cannot be. How is this happening? Slowly suspicion was building up”. So, it was just a feeling and suspicion, born out of his sense of entitlement, because “our technical experts” said so. No hard evidence or concrete proof.
With no evidence, the opposition went knocking at the doors of the President of India. Being a decent person, she politely told Rahul and his ilk that they brought complaints without any evidence. Coming out of the meeting, the Congress scion made a funny claim that he was surprised that the President did not dismiss their concerns. Only a dimwit can be surprised over her demand for proof. Then Rahul made the absurd argument that not he and his party, but the ruling establishment should “prove to us that you have not cheated in the election”.
Like the complaints about EVM tampering, this vote chori allegation too has no tangible evidence to support. Nowhere in the country did ordinary voters complain about stealing of their votes – in no booths and no villages. Then came the insistence that ballot papers should return. But when elections to the Silchar Municipal Corporation were conducted in early October using paper ballots, the Congress could win in just 2 out of the total 42 wards. BJP won 32 and its allies 2. In the elections to 28 seats for legislative councils (MLCs) in four states – Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka and Maharashtra – using ballot papers earlier this week, the Congress could manage to win in just one seat while the BJP and its allies captured 16 seats. In the Congress-ruled state of Karnataka, all four MLC seats were won by the NDA, and the ruling party drew a blank. It is important to underscore that the voters in these elections were graduates and teachers, meaning that the educated and enlightened sections of our country are roundly rejecting Rahul’s propaganda about EVMs and vote chori.
His campaign against the SIR too is a similar lie. There were eight intensive revisions of the electoral roles in the country in the past since 1952, and the current SIR is the ninth. Seven out of those eight revisions were conducted by Congress governments. The last time such a revision happened was in 2002-04. After two decades, the Election Commission is conducting that exercise again.
The Congress is creating a ruckus over it for two reasons: one, they are unable to face the BJP juggernaut at the hustings directly and hence an effort is being made for regime change through anarchy; and two, they want to project the hard-won victory of Modi and the BJP as election stealing.
The opposition propagates that it will bring a million people, while Ramlila Maidan can take only 50-60 thousand. The opposition has propaganda, but the people are with Modi. The Congress may finally bring a few thousands to Delhi, but the BJP will go to thousands of towns and villages to inform a billion Indians about the opposition’s lies and sins. It has the track record of protecting democracy from Indira’s dictatorship fifty years ago. It will protect it from Rahul’s anarchy now.
