EC no longer protector of democracy but key participant in 'vote chori' conspiracy: Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday alleged that what is being done in Gujarat in the name of SIR is a "well-planned, organised, and strategic vote chori", with the Election Commission becoming a key participant in the "conspiracy of vote theft".
The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has been transformed into a weapon to destroy the constitutional right of "one person, one vote", so that the BJP, not the people, decides who will be in power.
"Wherever there's SIR, there's vote theft. What is being done in Gujarat in the name of SIR is not any kind of administrative process, it is a well-planned, organised, and strategic vote chori," Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X.
The most shocking and dangerous thing is that thousands upon thousands of objections were filed under the same name, he claimed.
"Votes were selectively removed from specific communities and booths that support the Congress party. Wherever the BJP sees a potential defeat, voters are simply made to disappear from the system," Gandhi alleged.
"This same pattern was seen in Aland. The same thing happened in Rajura. And now the same blueprint is being implemented in Gujarat, Rajasthan, and every state where SIR has been imposed," he said.
"The most serious truth is that the Election Commission is no longer the protector of democracy, but has become a key participant in this conspiracy of vote theft," Gandhi said.
His remarks came over Gujarat Congress' social media post in which it alleged that after Rahul Gandhi exposed vote manipulation, the BJP has adopted a next-level model of election rigging.
"Election rigging means the theft of your voting rights, and this new game has come to light in Gujarat. According to the rules, the Election Commission, after the SIR, released the draft list and began accepting objections, setting January 18 as the final date. Only a handful of objections were received until January 15, but the real game began afterward. Under a conspiracy, millions of objections (Form 7) were suddenly submitted," the party's state unit claimed.
When the Election Commission released the 1.2 million objections, it became clear that rules were being flouted to target specific castes, communities, and regions. Dozens of objections were filed in the name of a single person, with different names and signatures, while the Election Commission remained a "silent spectator", it further alleged.
"When the main opposition party writes a letter requesting information about the objections, they receive no response, making the election rigging completely evident. This is because the Election Commission has mortgaged both its responsibility and accountability to the ruling party," the party claimed.
जहाँ-जहाँ SIR, वहाँ-वहाँ वोट चोरी।
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 24, 2026
गुजरात में SIR के नाम पर जो कुछ किया जा रहा है, वह किसी भी तरह की प्रशासनिक प्रक्रिया नहीं है - यह सुनियोजित, संगठित और रणनीतिक वोट चोरी है।
सबसे चौंकाने वाली और ख़तरनाक बात यह है कि एक ही नाम से हज़ारों-हज़ार आपत्तियाँ दर्ज की गईं।
चुन-चुनकर… https://t.co/LC9i5DP44y
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ICC replaces Bangladesh with Scotland in T20 World Cup
New Delhi (PTI): The ICC on Saturday confirmed that Scotland has replaced Bangladesh in the upcoming T20 World Cup, saying the "difficult decision" was taken since it was not feasible to meet BCB's request to shift their matches to Sri Lanka so close to the tournament.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) refused to let its team travel to India citing security concerns in the wake of Mustafizur Rahman's ouster from the IPL.
ICC maintained that there was no verifiable security threat to the Bangladesh national team, officials or supporters in India and it was not appropriate to amend the published event schedule.
Scotland's entry into the tournament, starting February 7, ended the suspense over the fate of Bangladesh in the event after BCB stayed adamant in its demand and even suggested that its group be swapped with Ireland's.
At the ICC Board meeting on Wednesday, Bangladesh lost it proposal to shift matches by an overwhelming 14-2 margin with only Pakistan supporting its cause.
"Bangladesh will no longer compete in the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, after the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) refused to participate in the tournament per the published match schedule," ICC said in a statement.
"The decision follows an extensive process undertaken by the ICC to address concerns raised by the BCB regarding the hosting of its scheduled matches in India."
It has been learnt that top ICC officials including chairman Jay Shah were in Dubai on Friday and late evening an e-mail was sent to BCB chairman Aminul Islam Bulbul informing him about global body's decision.
"The ICC’s assessments concluded that there was no credible or verifiable security threat to the Bangladesh national team, officials or supporters in India.
"In light of these findings, and after careful consideration of the broader implications, the ICC determined that it was not appropriate to amend the published event schedule," the statement added.
The ICC said it had given BCB a 24-hour time-frame to confirm whether its team would participate in India as scheduled.
"As no confirmation was received within the deadline, the ICC proceeded in line with its established governance and qualification processes to identify a replacement team."
"Scotland are the next-highest ranked T20I team that had originally missed T20 World Cup qualification. They are currently ranked 14th, which in fact is ahead of competing teams Namibia, the United Arab Emirates, Nepal, USA, Canada, Oman and Italy.
"Scotland has been called up to take Bangladesh’s place in Group C, joining England, Italy, Nepal and the West Indies."
Scotland will play their group games against West Indies (February 7), Italy (February 9) and England (February 14) in Kolkata followed by a game against Nepal in Mumbai on February 17.
Bangladesh Sports Ministry advisor Asif Nazrul had advised against national team travelling to India, citing security issues despite being given repeated assurances by the ICC.
The BCB, in a desperate measure, had also approached the Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC) of the ICC, unaware about the terms of reference of the sub-committee which is not allowed to hear an appeal against a decision made by its own Board of Directors.
While the mandatory independent security assessment threat for Bangladesh was "low to moderate", same for all teams, anti-India hardliner Nazrul issued a diktat as representative of the interim government that the team cannot be allowed to travel to India in these circumstances.
In fact, the meeting between Nazrul and national team players turned out to be a one-way communication with Nazrul doing all the talking and telling the star cricketers that they won't be allowed to participate in the tournament.
Financial implication for BCB
The implications of this unceremonious ouster will also badly hit BCB's coffers. The board will lose USD 500,000 participation fee that each nation gets. But the bigger potential loss will be ICC's annual revenue.
The BCB annually receives close to USD 27 million (330 crore BDT) as a share of its revenue from the ICC and that itself constitutes around 60 percent of its annual budget.
Add to it, the loss of sponsorship money for not playing the tournament. Last but not least, with India now not travelling to that part of the world for a bilateral series means BCB will lose money which would have been equal to playing 10 bilateral series against other nations.
The only legal option that exists with BCB is to move to Court of Arbitration of Sports (CAS) in Lausanne but the tournament will still go on.
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