People must protect their right to vote to safeguard Constitution: Rahul Gandhi

Launching a frontal attack on the NDA government at the Center over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said people must protect their right to vote to safeguard the Constitution.

The SIR in Bihar has exposed the BJP and the EC, and so people have started calling leaders of the saffron party 'vote chor', he claimed while addressing a public rally in Madhubani district as part of the Congress' 'Voter Adhikar Yatra'.

"BJP leaders are indulging in Vote Chori through the Election Commission... People must come forward to protect their right to vote and also to protect the Indian Constitution," the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha said.

People must remember that if they lose their voting rights, the Constitution cannot be protected, Gandhi asserted.

The EC deleted names of 65 lakh voters from the electoral rolls in Bihar, he said, and alleged that 65 lakh electors would now be added to help the BJP.

"(Union Home Minister) Amit Shah had said that the BJP government will continue for another 40-50 years. Now I realised that he said it because they are involved in 'vote chori' and it started from Gujarat itself," he said.

Gandhi asserted that neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor Amit Shah uttered a single word on his charge of "vote theft" by the BJP.

He also alleged that the RSS does not respect the Constitution, as it guarantees equal rights to everyone.