Rahul Shares Tea with ‘Dead’ Voters in Bihar, Thanks EC
New Delhi
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday described a “unique” experience of having tea with voters from Bihar who were wrongly declared “dead” by the Election Commission (EC).
Seven voters from Bihar visited Gandhi at his residence, sharing how their names were removed from the electoral rolls during the special intensive revision (SIR) ahead of the state elections.
“Life gives you many interesting experiences, but I never thought I’d have tea with ‘dead people.’ For this unique experience, thank you, Election Commission!” Gandhi wrote in a Hindi post on X, alongside a video of the meeting. In the clip, he is seen urging the voters to explore Delhi, joking that the “dead” cannot even buy tickets.
The voters told Gandhi they discovered their names had been deleted as part of the SIR process, which affected around 6.5 million voters in poll-bound Bihar. They also mentioned appearing before the Supreme Court on Wednesday to reclaim their voting rights. The apex court is currently hearing petitions challenging the SIR procedure.
In a later statement, Congress emphasized that all seven voters—Ramikbal Ray, Harendra Ray, Lalmuni Devi, Vachiya Devi, Lalwati Devi, Punam Kumari, and Munna Kumar—are alive and hail from Tejashwi Yadav’s Raghopur constituency.
The party added that these seven are only a small fraction of those unfairly removed from two to three polling booths in the constituency. “This is not a clerical error—it is political disenfranchisement in plain sight,” it said, highlighting concerns over the integrity of the voter list revision.
