‘We will defeat Modi, Shah’

1. Cites 140 Million ‘Non-Existent’ Voters
2. Rahul Questions 2024 Poll Legitimacy

metro india news  I hyderabad

Rahul Gandhi on Saturday  expressed confidence about the political future. “I will tell you confidently that we are going to defeat Modi and get rid of him. You can see it on the streets and in the fear that Modi and Amit Shah have. This is already a done deal,” he stated. he also questioned the legitimacy of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and alleged that Indian democracy was destroyed in 2014, citing large-scale revisions to electoral rolls by the Election Commission.

Addressing the Bharat Summit in Hyderabad, the Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said the 2014 polls marked a fundamental break from earlier contests. “In 2014, we witnessed an entirely different kind of election. Millions of dollars were injected into the political system. It was a completely new form of campaigning, a spectacle unlike anything we had seen before,” Gandhi stated.

He described a crisis that had built over a decade. The opposition remained in shock for years as the political and electoral landscape shifted dramatically. “Suddenly, we discovered that democracy had been destroyed in India in 2014,” he asserted. Gandhi claimed the Congress and opposition had studied the electoral process extensively and concluded that India is no longer a functioning democracy.

Gandhi pointed to recent voter roll revisions as evidence. “Let me give you an example. 140 million people who voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha election were declared either non-existent voters or non-voters just a few months ago,” he said. “If 13% of voters have been declared illegal non-voters by the Election Commission, how can the 2024 election be considered legitimate?”

He linked the alleged deletions to broader questions about electoral integrity. Gandhi argued that if such a large share of those who participated in the national polls were later classified as non-existent or ineligible, the outcome of that election itself stands in doubt. He presented the figure as proof that the democratic system had been compromised since the 2014 shift in campaigning and political funding.

The Leader of the Opposition framed the changes as part of a longer pattern. He said the opposition initially struggled to understand the new dynamics after 2014, remaining disoriented for nearly a decade before piecing together what he described as the systematic undermining of democratic institutions and the electoral process. Gandhi also highlighted what he called a fusion between politics and business. He referred to a businessman who ranked as the 600th richest person before the BJP came to power and who some months ago became the second richest man in the world. “How? By a fusion between politics and business. The line between business and politics, between Mr. Adani and Mr. Modi has evaporated,” he said.

He pointed to the outcome in political finance and the assets captured, including airports, ports, bridges, cement, defence and infrastructure. “The result is that the BJP’s assets grew 11 fold in a decade. They become a financial titan and nobody can compete with them,” Gandhi added.