Rahul Gandhi told a huge INDIA bloc rally in Delhi that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar will be removed from office and jailed. He called alleged vote theft “treason.” The BJP hit back hard. All of these are allegations — none has been proved in court.
Updated: 2 November 2026, 10:00 IST
Quick Read
- At the INDIA bloc’s “Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao” rally at Ramlila Maidan on Nov 1, Rahul Gandhi said CEC Gyanesh Kumar “will go to jail.”
- He alleged vote theft in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and in several states, and said removing the CEC is “the first step.”
- The BJP called the rally a “chaotic, unruly spectacle”; the Election Commission denies political bias and says wrongly deleted voters can re-apply.
What Rahul Gandhi actually said
Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, spoke for about 18 minutes at the INDIA bloc rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on Sunday, November 1. His words, reported by The Hindu, The Indian Express and others, were: “I am telling every citizen and every youth of India: Gyanesh Kumar will be removed from the post of Chief Election Commissioner. Gyanesh Kumar will go to jail.” He added: “Without Gyanesh Kumar, neither Narendra Modi would have become prime minister nor Amit Shah would have become home minister.” He said legal action would follow against Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah too, over what he calls “vote chori” — vote theft. Gandhi alleged that vote theft happened in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal, and in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He said the gap between the BJP-led NDA and the INDIA bloc was only three per cent, and claimed the Election Commission’s own data backed his case. He also said the 2024 election was “illegal.” These are his claims. The Election Commission has rejected claims of bias, and no court has ruled that votes were stolen. He also said his side does not hate Modi, Shah or Kumar, and does not back violence. “For me, there is no enemy,” he said, adding that “the voice of every citizen of India is more important to me, even more important than religion.”
Who was there
The rally, called “Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao” (Save Votes, Save the Country), was the end of the bloc’s “Chalo Dilli” march. Leaders marched from the Minto Road–Connaught Place junction to Ramlila Maidan in open vehicles. On the stage were Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti and Mamata Banerjee, among others. The rally demanded the CEC’s resignation and the scrapping of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists. SIR is a drive to check and clean up voter lists — the Election Commission says it removes dead, shifted or duplicate voters. The Opposition says genuine voters got deleted.
Also read: INDIA bloc Ramlila rally today
The BJP’s response
The BJP hit back the same evening. Party spokesperson Sambit Patra called the rally a “chaotic, unruly spectacle” and said Gandhi spoke “like the son of a Mughal emperor.” He said: “This Hindustan does not belong to your ‘abbujan’ (father). It belongs to Hindustanis.” BJP chief Nitin Nabin accused Gandhi of acting at the behest of foreign powers to create disorder. He asked why the Opposition accepts wins in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka as fair, but challenges results in Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. BJP MP Manoj Tiwari said on November 2 that threats have no place in a democracy. He questioned the Opposition’s claims about voter deletions and alleged attempts to get illegal infiltrators onto voter lists. Patra also disputed the crowd size. He said the bloc claimed 10 lakh people would attend, but about 5,000–7,000 of some 28,000 chairs at Ramlila Maidan were empty in the afternoon — roughly 40 per cent of one section, by his count. The Congress shared a counter video it said showed a packed ground. The two sides disagree on turnout, and no independent crowd count is available.
The Election Commission’s side
The Election Commission has denied political bias. It says SIR is a voter-list verification exercise, and voters whose names were wrongly deleted can seek re-enrolment. It has not publicly answered the six specific charges in the Opposition’s October 31 resolution point by point.
Also read: What is SIR?
What happens next: the removal process
A day before the rally, on October 31, the INDIA bloc held a symbolic “public impeachment” of the CEC at Mallikarjun Kharge’s home in Delhi, with former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar presiding. Its resolution listed six charges, including deleting crores of voters and changing voter forms without Parliament’s approval. That event has no legal force — it was a political protest, not a court. Real removal is very hard by design. Under Article 324(5) of the Constitution, the CEC can only be removed like a Supreme Court judge — through Parliament, on grounds of proved misbehaviour or incapacity, with a special majority. No CEC has ever been removed this way, and the Opposition does not hold the numbers in Parliament to do it. A Supreme Court petition seeking criminal prosecution of the CEC over the SIR is also pending, per news reports. So the practical path for the Opposition is political pressure and court cases, not a removal vote it can win today. One number needs care: reports of the Opposition’s charges cite “13.2 crore” deleted voters in one account and Rahul Gandhi’s rally claim of “13.5 crore” in another. Reuters reported over 130 million names removed in the revision overall. These figures come from different claims and counts — treat them as contested, not settled.
Also read: IND vs NZ 4th T20I
FAQ
Q: Did Rahul Gandhi really say the CEC will go to jail? A: Yes — multiple outlets quote him saying Gyanesh Kumar “will be removed” and “will go to jail” at the Nov 1 Ramlila Maidan rally. It is a political warning, not a court order.
Q: Can the Opposition actually remove the CEC? A: Only Parliament can, with a special majority, like removing a Supreme Court judge. The Opposition lacks those numbers, and no CEC has ever been removed this way.
Q: What does the Election Commission say? A: It denies political bias, says SIR is a routine voter-list check, and says wrongly deleted voters can apply to be added back.
