EC failed to understand public sentiment: Gehlot on Cong's 'vote chori' claim

Jaipur, Aug 11 (PTI) The Election Commission has failed to understand public sentiment, Congress leader Ashok Gehlot said on Monday, condemning the brief detention of opposition MPs who took out a march from Parliament House to the poll panel's office against the electoral rolls revision in Bihar and alleged "vote chori".

He said this was perhaps for the first time in history that such a large number of opposition MPs took to the streets against the Election Commission.

Stepping up the attack, opposition MPs, including Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Sharad Pawar, on Monday took out a protest march from Parliament House to the Election Commission office against the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and alleged "vote chori", but were stopped midway by the police and briefly detained amid high drama.

In a post on X, Gehlot said, "The conduct of the Election Commission of India is condemnable. It is failing to understand public sentiment. The Election Commission of India should apologise to the nation." The BJP, however, slammed the opposition parties for their protest, alleging that they are trying to create "anarchy and instability" in the country.

Gehlot alleged that detaining MPs during the Parliament session and keeping them in police stations was a violation of parliamentary privileges.

"To maintain public trust in the institution, the election commission should immediately make the voter list data available in machine-readable format so that irregularities can be identified and addressed," the former Rajasthan chief minister said. PTI SDA NSD NSD