Trinamool Congress raises the ante on ‘vote theft’ as Rahul Gandhi watches silently

New Delhi, Jan 12 West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee appears all set to undermine, possibly usurp, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s “vote theft” initiative.

Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha, launched a short-term, not-too-aggressive tirade against the Election Commission at the launch of the Special Intensive Review (SIR) of Bihar’s electoral list last year. Mamata has raised the cry much louder as her state, along with others, is undergoing the process weeks before state elections are due.

Earlier, her nephew and party General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee led a group of Trinamool leaders to meet the poll body’s top officials, including Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, in Delhi. The delegation reportedly lodged a protest with the Commission, alleging several anomalies in the SIR exercise being carried out in West Bengal.

Now, reports from Kolkata say that the party supremo has warned of laying a siege at the Election Commission office in the National Capital. While Rahul Gandhi confined himself to some media interactions at the Congress headquarters and a “yatra” around Bihar with allies during the run-up to state polls. While partners like the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) appeared less than convinced, the Mahagathbandhan alliance did not include Rahul’s “vote theft” among principal poll issues.

Abhishek, at a media interaction following the Election Commission meeting in Delhi, cited the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) unusually high strike rate in recent state elections. He pointed to the ruling party’s victories in Maharashtra, Delhi, Haryana, and Bihar, where the party won with overwhelming success rates.

Trinamool’s heir apparent questioned whether this pattern was merely a coincidence, asserting that Opposition parties, including the Congress, had failed to identify and raise these issues. It was only the Trinamool, he reiterated, that had pointed out pertinent issues that were allegedly leading to “vote theft” in favour of the BJP, which no other Opposition party could see.

“I want to reiterate that these are the same mistakes that the Congress committed in the past, which AAP also failed to point out, and even RJD in Bihar failed to raise, leading to BJP winning with over an 88 percent strike rate,” he asserted. “Vote theft does not happen through EVMs,” he insisted, a point also stated by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah only days before Abhishek.

Mamata Banerjee, being the astute politician, has been aggressive and a disruptionist in her words and actions. Last week, security agencies in Delhi were caught unawares when eight MPs of the Trinamool Congress suddenly landed before the Home Minister’s office. They staged a protest against a recent Enforcement Directorate (ED) raid in Kolkata at the premises of a political consultancy group professionally linked with West Bengal’s current ruling dispensation.

It was some time before Delhi Police could react and physically remove the protestors in the early morning of a working day from a high-security area in Lutyen’s zone. Unlike the Congress, the Trinamool intends to suggest a broader confrontation with the poll body over SIR, and central agencies over state administrative issues.

Mamata is framing such moves and exercises as compromised, alleging benefit for the BJP before a high-stakes state election, thus mobilising her party around the narrative of defending democracy. Past protests indicate potential disruption and the optics of a party trying to fight an “uneven” battle and “defend” federalism.

While Rahul Gandhi’s narrative failed to convince the electorate, it is yet to be seen if Mamata Banerjee's upping the ante would be able to earn her a fourth direct victory at West Bengal’s hustings.

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