Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Sunday accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being involved in what he called vote theft, alleging that the BJP was using its power to manipulate elections.
He was speaking at a public meeting in Margao, Goa, on the 25th day of the Goy Rakhonn Yatra, where he also targeted the Goa government over land, jobs, corruption and education.
Gandhi claimed each of the three played a distinct part in the process. “The entire nation knows without any confusion how electoral malpractice is orchestrated. Gyanesh Kumar implements the vote theft, Amit Shah operationalises it, and Narendra Modi plans it from behind the scenes,” he alleged.
Turning to the state, Gandhi called Goa one of the most beautiful places in the country, with a rich cultural heritage. He alleged that the government was taking land from farmers and poor people in order to sell it to wealthy outsiders.
“Goa is not the personal property of the Chief Minister here. Goa belongs to the people here—where you should get education, health, employment. The BJP has turned Goa into a ‘model of corruption’. BJP leaders from other states come to the Goa government to learn corruption. We have to end this ‘corruption model’, which only Congress can do,” he said.
On jobs, he said the state’s young people were being pushed out of the country. “Goa suffers from some of the highest unemployment rates in the country, leaving young people with no future and forcing them to migrate abroad. While ordinary citizens suffer, BJP leaders are turning into billionaires and the Chief Minister’s family assets continue to multiply,” Gandhi alleged.
He then widened his attack to the Centre’s economic policies. Gandhi alleged that major infrastructure sectors, including airports, roads, power plants and defence, had been handed over to industrialists Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani. According to him, the award of contracts and land to billionaires was tied to political funding and heavy publicity for the ruling leadership.
Describing the situation in Goa as a high-tech model of graft that BJP leaders from other states travelled to study, Gandhi compared it with the earlier Gujarat model of vote theft. He said the Congress was ready to fight the ideological battle against corruption.
Gandhi also predicted that the BJP leadership would lose its political dominance, claiming that the youth and the people of the country had seen through it.
“The aura of invincibility and the talk of a ‘56-inch chest’ have vanished because the youth and the soul of this nation have recognized their true character. Once the conscience of the nation decides to reject them, no amount of force, money, or marketing can save them,” he said.