“Thanks EC for Unique Experience”: Rahul Gandhi Has Tea With 7 ‘Dead’ Voters from Bihar
Amid rising controversy over Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday shared a video showing him interacting and having tea with several people wrongly listed as “dead” in the revised draft voter list.
Crediting the Election Commission for this “unique experience,” Gandhi joked that he had never had the chance to have tea with the ‘dead.’
Sharing the 3–4 minute video, he captioned: “There have been many interesting experiences in life, but I never got the chance to have tea with ‘dead people.’ For this unique experience, thank you, Election Commission!”
In the video, the Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) was seen asking the affected voters how they discovered that the Election Commission had listed them as ‘dead’. “I have heard that you guys are not alive. The Election Commission has killed you,” Gandhi said. One voter replied that they found out only after the poll panel released a draft list containing 65 lakh excluded names.
Gandhi asked how many such cases existed. One person responded that in a single panchayat, there were at least 50 such instances. They claimed that in the constituency of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, many living voters were erroneously shown as deceased in the EC’s draft list.
The group also told Gandhi that they had appeared before the Supreme Court on Wednesday to restore their voting rights. The apex court is currently hearing petitions against the SIR in Bihar.
One member urged the Congress MP and Mahagathbandhan alliance to “save Bihar,” to which the LoP assured that they were working to stop electoral irregularities.
The interaction comes amid a wider controversy triggered by Rahul Gandhi’s “vote theft” allegations against the Election Commission and the BJP-ruled Centre, related to irregularities in the SIR for poll-bound Bihar.
During a press conference on August 7, Gandhi alleged “vote chori” (vote theft), citing the Congress’ internal analysis. He said the party expected to win 16 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka but managed only nine. Investigating seven unexpected losses, the Congress focused on Mahadevapura, alleging a theft of 100,250 votes.
The Election Commission has rejected these claims and asked Gandhi to submit proof along with an affidavit. In a strong rebuttal last week, the EC said the Congress was attempting to “mislead” the public, referring to a similar incident involving Kamal Nath in 2018.
The Karnataka CEO also asked Rahul Gandhi on Sunday to submit documents to support his “vote theft” allegations against the poll body.
