Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday hosted a closed-door dinner meeting with leaders of 25 INDIA bloc parties in Delhi, using the occasion to present what he claimed was evidence of voter roll fraud in Karnataka and issue a warning of similar manipulation in upcoming elections in Bihar, West Bengal, and Assam.
Gandhi reportedly made a presentation claiming that bogus and duplicate entries allowed Congress to lose the seat in Mahadevapura constituency in Karnataka, several participants said. The BJP and the Election Commission (EC) were blamed by him as their ‘blueprint’ for vote theft was in full swing in several states.
Gandhi recently moved to a new official residence on Sunehri Bagh Road after becoming Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and this was the first formal dinner the Congress president has hosted there. The majority of senior opposition leaders were present, showcasing a relaunch of campaigns they view as a rising electoral challenge.
“I laid out BJP-EC’s #VoteChori blueprint before INDIA alliance leaders tonight. INDIA is united, determined, and ready to defend democracy,” Gandhi posted on social media shortly after the gathering.
The focus of the evening was squarely on Bihar. Leaders discussed the EC’s controversial “special intensive revision” (SIR) of voter rolls in the state, which several opposition figures say has opened the door to large-scale manipulation.
Tejashwi Yadav, former deputy chief minister of Bihar, alleged during the meeting that the BJP and EC were “hand in glove” in trying to engineer voter roll changes to influence the outcome of future elections.
“They are trying to capture votes,” Yadav reportedly told the gathering, urging a collective response.
On August 11, the INDIA bloc is marching right to the doorstep of the Election Commission in New Delhi. The protest is a public accusation—a charge that the integrity of the nation’s electoral process is being systematically dismantled.
Gandhi positioned the issue as a test of democratic strength. “We should not rest but fight, otherwise free and fair elections will not happen in India,” he reportedly told the attendees.
This meeting marked a conspicuous turnaround in the fortunes of the INDIA bloc, from more or less empty rooms in the past Akhilesh Yadav, Abhishek Banerjee, K Kanimozhi and the J&K’s two ex-chief ministers, Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, were some of the big opposition names on the attendance sheet.
The most vocal intervention came from Abdullah himself, who urged his allies to raise the restoration of J&K’s statehood on every available platform — at the state, regional and national levels.
There was no formal discussion on the upcoming vice-presidential election, according to two leaders present. The evening, they said, remained focused on voter roll concerns and potential coordinated responses.
With Bihar’s voter list becoming the new flashpoint, the INDIA bloc appears set to make electoral transparency a core part of its agenda heading into several high-stakes state elections. What happens on August 11 may set the tone.
