"Stop conducting, start contesting polls": Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar slams Election Commission

Sasaram (Bihar) [India], August 17 (ANI): Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar on Sunday criticised the Election Commission over voter list discrepancies highlighted by Rahul Gandhi, saying the Commission should "stop conducting" and "start contesting" elections, and questioning its sudden press conference on the issue.
"When opposition leader Rahul Gandhi is saying that there are discrepancies and you should investigate... then they said that SIR has been done to prevent discrepancies... Now, today, the Election Commission is suddenly holding a press conference. The Election Commission should stop conducting and start contesting elections themselves," Kumar said.
Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi, during his massive 'Vote Adhikaar Yatra' in Sasaram today vowed to expose any theft of votes, whether in Maharashtra, Bihar, or elsewhere in the future. "The entire country knows what the Election Commission is doing. Earlier, the country did not know how votes were being stolen. But we made it clear in the press conference how votes are being stolen. Whenever the theft is happening, whether in Bihar, Maharashtra, Assam, Bengal, we will catch the theft and work to show the people," he said.
Calling Bihar's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) a "conspiracy" by the Election Commission, Gandhi said, "I am telling you from this stage that Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha elections are being stolen in the entire country. Their latest conspiracy is to conduct SIR in Bihar and steal the Bihar elections as well by cutting the new votes and adding fake ones. All of us have come to this stage to tell you that we will not let them steal this election."
He further said that the poor would support him in stopping vote theft, adding, "Bihar's population will not let this theft happen. Why? Because poor people only have the vote, and we will not let vote chori happen."
At the rally, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav accused the Election Commission and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of attempting to scam the people of Bihar regarding the voter list. "Narendra Modi is dead set on destroying the lives of the youth of Bihar. Modi makes the illiterate clap for him and does politics. But we do the politics of giving work to everyone's hand. Today that is why we are here. Election Commission, Modi Bihario ko choona lagana lagate hai (want to scam the people of Bihar). Do not think of Biharis as weak," Yadav said.
He recalled the words of socialist leader and freedom fighter Ram Manohar Lohia, who advocated ensuring that voting rights keep power with the downtrodden, and added, "Lalu and Lohia have always been saying that 'Rule of votes means the rule of small'. Our Constitution, Babasaheb Ambedkar has given us all this right, gave us a power of vote. Whether it is someone poor, or rich, powerful, everyone has the right to give one vote, which is given by the Constitution."
The Election Commission responded by noting that the time to raise issues about errors in the electoral rolls, even past errors, was during the "Claims and Objections" period. The EC said sharing the electoral roll with all political parties and candidates aimed to allow issues to be raised on time. It also highlighted that political parties and their Booth Level Agents did not examine the electoral rolls at the appropriate time. (ANI)