NEW DELHI: Raising the stakes in the ongoing controversy over special intensive revision (SIR) of poll rolls, the Congress Working Committee on Tuesday demanded that PM Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah resign on moral grounds, accusing them of being orchestrators of ‘vote chori’ through CEC Gyanesh Kumar. CWC, chaired by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, also demanded the CEC’s resignation, a halt to the SIR process, and restoration of over 13 crore voters deleted from the rolls.The meeting saw LoP Rahul Gandhi take the lead in arguing that the country now believes what the party and he had been saying for over two years: that the electoral rolls and EVMs were compromised by EC. He lamented that there were “non-believers” in Congress even when evidence was given about “vote chori”.Referring to a meeting involving him, PM Modi and Shah, Rahul said the PM told him that after they lose, the Congress government will come in. Rahul had questioned how some appointments were being made despite his opposition, to which the PM had said Indira Gandhi also did that.Rahul said he had replied that Indira was voted out, after which PM Modi made the remark that Congress would follow BJP to office. Sources described the remark’s context as Rahul’s bid to rally non-believers within by mentioning that even the “BJP mascot” believes Congress will come to office.Rahul is learnt to have said the “big fishes” (PM Modi and Shah) know they are going to lose in future. He said that while there are questions about the 2014 and 2019 elections, the 2024 LS polls were unambiguously “match-fixed”, and termed PM Modi as the “illegal PM”. He repeatedly stressed “resistance” against the government.Putting Rahul’s imprimatur on exposing “vote chori”, the CWC resolution, read to the media by KC Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh, noted, “what began as one man’s solitary warning is now a national demand for transparency and accountability”.CWC stopped short of deciding an action plan, leaving it to the INDIA bloc, which will meet Wednesday.CWC meeting was attended by Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Sachin Pilot, Shashi Tharoor, Abhishek Singhvi, Manish Tewari, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Jitendra Singh, Prakash Joshi, CMs DK Shivakumar, Sukhwinder Sukhu, VD Satheesan, and Revanth Reddy, among others. Many CWC members and the four CMs are learnt to have argued that agitation in Delhi is important to having an impact.
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Kharge said, “Like in British times, Congress again has to shoulder the responsibility… we snatched the right to vote from the British and now fight to save that right.”When Tharoor said the party should support the CJP agitation called on Oct 2, Kharge caustically asked the Keralam MP if he would be seen only in newspapers and on TV, or would join the street battle against the EC.
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