Is Modi facing the worst crisis in his political career?
Politics is all a question of perception. After years of effort, the Opposition seems to have unearthed an issue to put the Modi government on the backfoot?
The “Vote Chori” issue has the potential to cloud the image of Modi and his government as no other issue so far. The entire Opposition Members of Parliament had united and were up in arms for many days protesting against the discrepancies found by leader of Opposition Mr Rahul Gandhi in the electoral roll in one single constituency in Maharashtra.
The Election Commission, with all the three election commissioners present, held a rare press conference to rebut the charges made by Opposition leader Mr Rahul Gandhi. Significantly it was held at the same time at which Mr Gandhi launched a yatra against “Vote chori” in Bihar. Incidentally Bihar is going to polls soon.
The attempt by the Commission to refute the charges completely backfired. The Opposition drilled holes into the arguments of the Commission and continued its attack on the Commission and the central government.
The Election Commissioner had failed to address the key issues raised by Mr Rahul Gandhi.
The Election Commission on its part alleged that the data openly shown in a Power Point Presentation by Rahul Gandhi was being incorrectly analyzed.
Rahul Gandhi who had always been dismissed as “Pappu” or political novice, by raising pointed questions at Election Commission which the Commission is finding difficult to answer, and turning this into a major political issue, demonstrates that he has transformed into an astute politician.
In politics what matters is not whether you are right or wrong but how well have you been able to convince the people about your point by your arguments.
Mr Rahul Gandhi in his Press conference, well-argued the issue and backed it with data and figures that not only challenged the Election Commission but threatened to endanger the edifice of the BJP government at the Centre.
In an open Press conference he showed a slide of 7-foot-high paper piles of electoral rolls , which he said were the authentic data provided by the Election Commission. The Election Commission he charged did not provide the data in machine readable format so that one could not make quick analysis.
Not to be deterred, he pointed out that with help of 30-40 volunteers who sifted through the data which took six months, they had come up with startling details which he disclosed.
He said this much time was consumed for going through the data of just one single Assembly constituency in Maharashtra – Madhevapura.
His arguments were not only convincing , he came out with shocking facts like the number of duplicate voters 11,965,fake and invalid address 40,009, bulk voters in a single address10,452, invalid photos , 4,132, misuse of Form 6 to be filed by new voters 33,602.
The glaring figures, if true, put a question mark on the entire process of making the electoral rolls . Is the Election Commission not checking and re-checking the electoral list?
Secondly, how does one know that this is not happening in large number of assembly seats throughout the country. Is this the reason , why many constituencies in which the Congress hoped to win , where opinion polls and exist polls claimed they would win, they lost, Mr Rahul Gandhi questioned.
He drilled in the fact that a democracy stands on the foundation of one person-one vote and therefore the electoral list was sacrosanct.
Everyone had the right to know if the right people were being allowed to vote or not, electoral list was true or not.
The shocking details coming out from Madhavepura should have been taken automatically by the Election Commission for a probe and enquiry.
This kind of lackadaisical way of creating the electoral rolls shows gross negligence on the part of the Election Commission, if we do not impute any other sinister motive.
Elections conducted on the basis of these electoral rolls would clearly not give the correct results.
The moot question is how such kind of serious violations have crept into our electoral rolls, with virtually no oversight.
Instead of trying to find out where the fault lay, the Election Commission seems to have taken it as a challenge to its constitutional authority and attempted to come down heavily on the leader of Opposition, Mr Rahul Gandhi.
It has urged Mr Rahul Gandhi to put everything on an affidavit and submit to Election Commission or apologise to the country within seven days. Neither of which Mr Rahul Gandhi has done.
Rather he has gone to the peoples court and taken to the roads – holding yatras, rallies, public meetings, repeatedly targeting the EC and the government.
Not only in Bihar, the Opposition is letting no stone unturned to spread the charge of “Vote-chori” throughout the length and breadth of the country.
The whole matter has taken a political turn with the Opposition pinning its hopes that this issue will yield advantage in all the forthcoming elections.
Opposition parties allege that the government and Election Commission seem to be acting in collusion ? Why should Ministers in the government come out to defend the Commission and secondly why should the Election Commssion not ask for affidavit from a former BJP Minister when he points to errors in some constituencies.
The Opposition is also as wanting to know how did the BJP Minister analyze the data of few constituencies so fast, if it took 6-months for the Congress to analyze data of one constituency. Was the Minister privy to machine readable data?
The Election Commissioner pointedly asked at his Press conference how can the Commission send notices to over a lakh of voters without a complaint on an affidavit.
He has a valid point but Election Commission was not being urged to send notices but at least take cognizance of the matter and institute a proper inquiry into these blatant and unpardonable mistakes in the voter rolls.
A question is being asked as to why Rahul Gandhi has to authenticate by affidavit the data which had come out of analysis of the Election Commission’s own electors data.
Election Commission’s allegation is that the data was being wrongfully analyzed to misguide the people.
But this argument also does not seem to cut much ice because how much analysis is needed to show that large number of persons are given in duplicate, large number of electors are shown to be staying in one address etc.
Nowhere, has the Election Commission come out and say that the electoral data with Mr Rahul Gandhi is not the authentic data of the Election Commission’s original electors list.
But when each single vote is so precious in our democracy then how come the electoral list has been prepared without any seriousness, 40 persons shown in one residence, commercial address is shown as elector’s residence where no one lives, duplicate voters, etc.
Should the list not have been meticulously corrected and then given out as the authentic final electoral list for any analysis.
If the Comision was transparent as it claims and had nothing to hide then instead of trying to defend itself should it not have thanked Mr Rahul Gandhi for pointing out the errors and gone ahead correcting it.
Rahul Gandhi is not likely to leave such an issue soon and is going to drum beat about it in the whole country.
No wonder the issue has caught the imagination of the people leading to debates and discussion around electoral rolls and Election Commission.
The Opposition has successfully been able to create a doubt regarding the process of Elections.This can have a significant effect on the results of forthcoming elections and the Modi government in the days to come
The Opposition has started questioning the results of the Lok Sabha elections itself and the right of the central government to continue.
The BJP leaders too are coming out with quips like, “If PM has to go, then what about the Congress Ministers and governments in states ?”
The BJP says that the Congress when it lost earlier it used to blame the EVMs , now it has started blaming the Electoral rolls.
In the meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi’s “Voter Adhikar” yatra in Bihar which is going to polls is creating further problems for BJP and Modi.
Political analysts say if Modi loses in Bihar due to the furore created by Mr Rahul Gandhi on the voter adhikar issue , there is the possibility of the political parties supporting the minority Modi government, withdrawing support, which could lead to the fall of the government?
They base their projections also on talks about Chandrababu Naidu leader of Telegu Desam Party (which is supporting the minority Modi government to stay in power) , being in touch with the leader of Opposition Mr Rahul Gandhi!