EC must immediately demonstrate it's not operating under BJP’s shadow: Congress
New Delhi (PTI): Upping the ante over its 'vote chori' pitch, the Congress on Tuesday said the Election Commission's conduct during the SIR process has been "deeply disappointing" and demanded that the poll body must immediately demonstrate that it is not operating under the BJP’s shadow.
Congress president Mallikrjun Kharge also alleged that the BJP is attempting to weaponise the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls process for "vote chori", as he chaired a meeting with key office bearers of 12 states and Union territories where the SIR is underway.
Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi and AICC general secretary organisation K C Venugopal participated in a review meeting with state unit chiefs, Congress Legislature Party leaders and secretaries of 12 states and Union territories where the SIR is underway.
"We held a comprehensive strategy review with AICC general secretaries, AICC in-charges, PCCs, CLPs, and AICC secretaries from the states/UTs where the SIR process is underway. The Congress Party is unequivocally committed to safeguarding the integrity of the electoral rolls," Kharge said on X after he chaired the meeting.
At a time when public confidence in democratic institutions is already strained, the Election Commission’s conduct during the SIR process has been "deeply disappointing", he said.
"It must immediately demonstrate that it is not operating under the BJP’s shadow and it remembers its Constitutional oath and allegiance to the people of India, not to any ruling party," Kharge said.
"We firmly believe that the BJP is attempting to weaponise the SIR process for vote chori. And if the EC chooses to look the other way, that failure is not just administrative - it becomes a complicity of silence," the Congress chief said.
"Our workers, BLOs, and District/City/Block Presidents will therefore remain relentlessly vigilant. We will expose every attempt, however subtle, to delete genuine voters or insert bogus ones," Kharge said.
The Congress will not allow democratic safeguards to be eroded by partisan misuse of institutions, he asserted.
After facing a severe drubbing in Bihar, where the NDA cruised to victory with 202 seats against the Mahagathbandhan's 35, the Congress has questioned the role of the Election Commission (EC) in the poll process.
The EC on Monday said more than 50 crore of the nearly 51 crore electors in the nine states and three UTs have received enumeration forms under the ongoing SIR of voter list.
In its daily SIR bulletin, the poll authority said 50.11 crore enumeration forms have been distributed in the 12 states and UTs. In other words, 98.32 per cent of the 50.99 crore electors have received the partly filled forms.
The states and UTs are: Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep.
Among these, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, and West Bengal will go to the polls in 2026.
In Assam, where elections are also due in 2026, the EC announced a 'special revision' of electoral rolls on Monday.
Phase-II of the SIR exercise began on November 4 with the enumeration stage and will continue till December 4.
Last week, Rahul Gandhi called the Bihar poll results surprising, and claimed that the election was not fair from the very beginning.
Gandhi also said the Congress and the INDIA bloc would conduct an in-depth review of the outcomes.
The Congress also claimed that the results, without a doubt, reflect "vote chori on a gigantic scale - masterminded by the prime minister, the home minister, the EC".
Gandhi's poll campaign against the BJP in Bihar revolved around his "vote chori"(vote theft) allegations.
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NEET-UG: 2 more held, role of several NTA officers under scanner; CBI focussing on source of leak
New Delhi (PTI): The CBI has arrested two more persons in connection with the NEET (UG) paper-leak case, with the role of several officers of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other organisations, who had access to the printing press where the papers were printed, coming under the scanner, officials said on Thursday.
The agency has arrested Dhananjay Lokhanda from Ahilyanagar and Manisha Waghmare from Pune and conducted searches at 14 locations across the country in the last 24 hours, they said.
The CBI is focussing on identifying the source of the leak that has caused massive disappointment to lakhs of aspirants eyeing a seat in undergraduate medical courses, which are allotted after the highly-competitive examination, the officials said.
According to the CBI probe so far, the involvement of public servants in the leak cannot be ruled out.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three individuals from Jaipur -- Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal -- along with Yash Yadav from Gurugram and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik.
Khairnar was in touch with Yadav and informed him in April that Mangilal Biwal was ready to pay Rs 10-12 lakh for arranging leaked NEET (UG) 2026 questions for his younger son.
Khairnar allegedly provided 500 to 600 questions from the leaked paper to Yadav, the officials said, adding that the questions could have helped score enough marks to get a seat in a reputed medical college.
Mangilal Biwal allegedly procured the paper from Yadav, who was known to his elder son Vikas Biwal from an NEET coaching in Rajasthan's Sikar. The deal between Mangilal Biwal and Yadav was for Rs 10 lakh, if 150 questions from the question bank matched with those in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper, the officials said.
Mangilal Biwal shared the paper with his son and further distributed it among relatives.
Yadav also told Vikas Biwal to find additional candidates for the questions to recover some of the money that he had spent on getting those, the officials said.
An analysis of digital devices has given the agency incriminating chats, leaked question papers and other digital evidence. The CBI will subject the devices to a forensic examination to get the deleted data, the officials said.
The federal agency has registered an FIR and formed teams to probe the alleged NEET (UG) paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the exam held on May 3.
The NEET (UG) 2026 was conducted across 551 Indian cities and at 14 overseas centres. Nearly 23 lakh candidates had registered for the test, which was administered by the NTA at centres across the country.
According to the NTA, information regarding alleged malpractice was received on the evening of May 7, four days after the examination was held. The NTA said the inputs were escalated to central agencies the following morning for "independent verification and necessary action".
The Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) has claimed that a "guess paper" for chemistry, allegedly circulated among students ahead of the examination, had approximately 410 questions, including roughly 120 that appeared in the test.
