New Delhi: Stepping up its attack on the government over allegations against the Election Commission, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Tuesday demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
“Vote chori has been organised by the CEC on behalf of the Prime Minister and the Home Minister. Nothing short of their resignation will ensure the safety of our Constitution and hard-earned democracy,” the party’s top decision-making body said in a resolution. This came a day before the INDIA bloc’s planned meeting in New Delhi to discuss the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
At the CWC meeting at Indira Bhavan in New Delhi, the Congress also demanded that the SIR be suspended and the 13.3 crore names it says have been removed from electoral rolls be restored.
Addressing the meeting, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi spoke about what he described as two forms of “match-fixing”—EVMs and voter lists. Comparing the 2024 Lok Sabha election with those held in 2014 and 2019, he described the 2024 election as “absolute match-fixing” and said it was “fixed” and “rigged”.
𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐀𝐈𝐂𝐂 𝐇𝐐 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲👇 pic.twitter.com/l4SDnokQuk
— Congress (@INCIndia) September 29, 2026
“People didn’t believe us when I was raising the issue of vote chori but now the media is picking it up. The same media which raised questions is now standing in favour of us. The atmosphere has changed,” Gandhi said, according to sources.
The meeting was chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, besides Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Jairam Ramesh, KC Venugopal and other senior party leaders.
Congress sources said the leadership told the meeting that the party needed to “fight tooth and nail” to ensure Kumar’s resignation. The CWC resolution also said the Congress would resist what it described as the “RSS-BJP’s capture of the electoral process”.
Gandhi asked party leaders to take up the SIR issue with confidence and reach out to people on the ground, sources said.
In a post on X after the meeting, the Congress said Gandhi had raised concerns over the fairness of elections and referred to the Mahadevpur election in Karnataka and polls in Haryana and Maharashtra.
Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said the party had been raising the issue for the past two years. “Revelations like ‘vote chori’ are happening only because of the Congress Party. Shri Rahul Gandhi Ji has been raising the issue of ‘vote chori’ for the past two years. Regarding the Mahadevpur election in Karnataka, Haryana and Maharashtra elections, he laid out all the information before the public,” Ramesh said.
“The elections taking place in our country are not fair; this is an election involving match-fixing between Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, and Gyanesh Kumar. The laws passed and acts created by the government on ‘vote chori’ are all illegal,” he said.
Ramesh said Gandhi had also stressed that the Congress’s politics went beyond opposing the government.
“Shri Rahul Gandhi Ji also said that the politics of the Congress Party is not just about opposition, but also about resistance. We oppose inside Parliament, resist on the streets, and we will continue to do so in the future as well,” Ramesh said.
The party will now take its SIR campaign to the ground, with rallies and nukkad sabhas planned as part of its outreach.
Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal said the party had already held protests across 800 districts in the country. “Our Congress workers staged massive protests across 800 districts yesterday. Our agitation was very aggressive. All our senior-most leaders were on the streets, along with DCC presidents and other leaders across India,” Venugopal said.
“Reports and statistics indicate that more than 13 crore votes have been deleted from the voter lists during the SIR exercise. We are going to approach these voters at the grassroots level. So, we will have a properly designed campaign for this,” he said on X.
Venugopal also invoked the Lahore Congress session of 1930 and said, “Today, Rahul ji reminded us of the Lahore Congress Session of 1930. At that time, when the British denied even provincial autonomy to the Indian National Congress, we took the decision to launch a movement for Purna Swaraj.”
“Whenever the present government refuses to listen to the voice of the people of this country or heed their demands, there is only one way forward for parties that believe in democracy: to resist. Therefore, we are going to resist through peaceful demonstrations and peaceful movements across the country,” he said.
The CWC resolution referred to the party’s earlier campaign over alleged electoral irregularities, including Gandhi’s press conferences on Karnataka, Maharashtra and Haryana, the Voter Adhikar Yatra in Bihar, the nationwide “Vote Chori” campaign, legal challenges to the SIR and protests by INDIA bloc parties.
The issue will now be taken up with the wider opposition. Venugopal said the INDIA bloc meeting on Wednesday would discuss the Congress’s demand for a larger movement against “Vote Chori”.
“Tomorrow there is an INDIA alliance meeting, Congress certainly wants a massive agitation to save democracy in this country with the help of all political parties. There will be valuable suggestions from the INDIA alliance members after that we will formalise the clear action plan for future agitation,” Venugopal said.
The Congress has said it will continue to pursue the issue through Parliament, the courts and street protests.
(Edited by Chingkheinganbi Mayengbam)
Also Read: INDIA bloc parties to meet on 30 Sep to discuss demand for CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s removal, SIR issue
Just a reminder : Rahul gandhi started with complaining about duplicate and fake voters and now he is complaining why are you removing those voters.
Please can we get a better opposition. My only request for this year.