New Delhi: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday alleged that after “vote theft”, BJP is now engaged in “power theft” and is bringing a bill to “topple opposition governments within 30 days” and “destabilize democracy” by using arrest as a weapon.
Kharge claimed that these bills take away the right of citizens to form or remove their elected government and give this power to institutions like ED-CBI.
The Congress President said, “This is like running a bulldozer on democracy.” He made this remark in his opening statement at a meeting with the newly appointed presidents of District Congress Committees (DCC) of Haryana and Madhya Pradesh at Indira Bhawan here. Kharge asked the district Congress chiefs to be very careful in forming booth and mandal committees and to ensure that the people in these committees are loyal to the party and do not deviate from the ideology of Congress.
All people should be loyal and hardworking towards the party
Kharge said, “The district president forms the block committee under him. He forms mandal and booth committees. When you form these committees, take special care that all these people are loyal and hardworking towards the party. The most important thing is that they do not deviate from the ideology of Congress.”
He stressed that even if someone tempts them, their loyalty towards Congress should remain intact, such people are needed.
Kharge said that Congress ruled the country for a long time due to its strong organization and it is important for the ministers to contact the district president first whenever they go to any district.
He told the district Congress chiefs of Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, “The district president is the strongest link in the Congress organisation. If we have to form a government in the state, then they play an important role in making the candidate win in the assembly. If we have to form a government in the country, then your support is needed to win the Lok Sabha.”
He said, “In the middle, there was a slight change in this tradition. Ministers started making their favourite people the district presidents. Ability and ideology started being ignored. Rahul (Gandhi) ji and I realised that without strengthening the organisation, without giving importance to the district presidents, we cannot return to power strongly.”
Kharge said that recently Rahul Gandhi had given a detailed presentation on how votes were stolen strategically as part of a conspiracy in Mahadevpura seat of Karnataka.
Vote theft was discovered after six months of research
He said, “We came to know all this after six months of research.” He said, “The Election Commission did not give any answer at first. Now the whole country is understanding this. The statement of the BJP government and the Election Commission on SIR in Bihar has received a setback from the Supreme Court.”
Speaking about the recently concluded monsoon session, Kharge said that the opposition wanted Parliament to function and important issues of the public to be discussed, but the BJP government did not want important matters like SIR (Special Intensive Revision of Voter List) and “vote theft” to be discussed.
Have to be careful for the entire five years
He said, “BJP will keep cutting the votes of our people with schemes like SIR. The biggest responsibility of the district president is that we have to be careful for the entire five years.”
Kharge said, “We have to keep doing a thorough check of our voter list so that if BJP people or BLOs delete the names of our people, we can catch them immediately.” He urged Congress leaders to tell the people that the right to vote for everyone in this country is a gift of the Congress.
He said, “Rajiv Gandhi reduced the voting age from 21 years to 18 years to increase the participation of youth in democracy.”
The PM is talking about infiltrators to mislead people
Referring to Rahul Gandhi’s “Voter Rights Yatra” in Bihar on the issue of vote theft, Kharge said that lakhs of people are joining this yatra. He said, “But the Prime Minister is talking about infiltrators to mislead people.”
He said, “After vote theft, the BJP is now engaged in power theft. On the last day of Parliament, they brought three new bills, including a Constitution Amendment Bill. While they do not have a two-thirds majority.”
Kharge alleged that these bills take away the right of citizens to form or remove their elected government and give this right to institutions like ED-CBI. He said, “This is like running a bulldozer on democracy.”
BJP can topple opposition governments in 30 days
Kharge further alleged, “With these bills, the BJP can topple opposition governments within 30 days, destabilizing democracy by using arrests as a weapon.”
He said, “We have seen that out of 193 cases against opposition leaders, ED action has led to conviction in only two cases. Many chief ministers and ministers were arrested and kept in jail for months. But now the CBI is saying that they have no evidence.”
Those who were called corrupt were made ministers
Kharge said in the meeting, “Modiji is talking big about corruption today. But he has included all those people in the party, whom he used to call corrupt, and even made them ministers.”
The Congress chief also urged the DCC chiefs to avoid factionalism and work unitedly to strengthen the organisation.
Election victory is possible only by being united
“Finally, I want to say the most important thing – you have to keep everyone united. Don’t let factionalism flourish. Only when the Congress remains united, we will win the elections,” he said.
Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday introduced three bills in the Lok Sabha to remove the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers and Ministers arrested for 30 consecutive days on serious charges, which was strongly opposed by opposition MPs who tore copies of the draft law and went near Shah’s seat raising slogans.
The bills were referred by the House to a joint committee of Parliament for scrutiny, comprising 21 members of the Lok Sabha and 10 members of the Rajya Sabha.
These three bills are – Union Territory Government (Amendment) Bill 2025, Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill 2025 and Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2025.
The bill proposes that if the Prime Minister, Union Minister or Chief Minister is arrested and detained for 30 consecutive days for offences punishable with imprisonment of at least five years, he will lose his post on the 31st day.
