Cong to hold ally at Ramlila Maidan on Sunday to put govt, EC in dock over 'vote theft'

New Delhi, Dec 13 (PTI) The Congress will step up its campaign over the "vote chori" issue with a rally at the Ramlila Maidan here on Sunday and seek to put the government and the Election Commission in the dock for "colluding" to allegedly rig elections.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi are expected to address the gathering. Top leaders, including Congress general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, K C Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, and Sachin Pilot, would participate in the rally.

Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi is also likely to be present.

The senior leaders will assemble at the Indira Bhawan headquarters of the party and then proceed to Ramlila Maidan in a bus.

Congress general secretary in-charge of organisation KC Venugopal has said the party has collected about 5.50 crore signatures against "vote chori".

"Rahul ji demonstrated with evidence how vote chori is happening... He challenged the Home Minister of India to have a debate with him on the press conferences. But the home minister didn't reply to that either," he said, adding the Congress is holding a "massive rally" on December 14 to highlight this issue.

"People are discussing this issue, and we have decided to give this momentum. After this rally, we have also requested a meeting with the President of India to submit this memorandum with 5.5 crore signatures," Venugopal said.

The rally comes days after a fiery debate in the Lok Sabha on election reforms, which saw the government and the opposition face off over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and other alleged electoral irregularities.

Participating in a discussion on election reforms in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi had launched a no-holds-barred attack on the government and the EC. He posed three questions, which, he claimed, make it clear that the BJP is "directing and using" the Election Commission (EC) to damage India's democracy.

Making suggestions, Gandhi had called for providing machine-readable voter lists to all parties one month before elections, rescinding the law that allows destruction of CCTV footage after 45 days, giving access to EVMs, and changing the law that allows the election commissioners "to get away with whatever they want to do".

"When you destroy the vote, you destroy the fabric of this country, you destroy modern India, you destroy the idea of India," Gandhi had said, gesturing towards the treasury benches.

On Friday, Rahul Gandhi had hailed his party MPs' performance during the debates in both Houses on Vande Mataram and election reforms, and claimed that the government's narrative was shredded to pieces by the opposition.

Intervening in the debate on election reforms in the Lok Sabha, a combative Home Minister Amit Shah had hit out at the opposition for its campaign against SIR, saying the issue has been raked up as it can no longer win elections by "corrupt practices".

The home minister also asserted that the reason for the Congress' defeat in successive polls was its leadership, not EVMs or "vote chori". The debate on Election Reforms is on in the Rajya Sabha. PTI ASK NSD NSD