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Patna: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will embark on a ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ across Bihar from here on Sunday, with his party asserting it will fight for the “one man, one vote” principle and not accept the Election Commission becoming a “compartment” of the BJP’s “so-called double engine.”

The leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, along with the RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav and other Mahagathbandhan leaders, will undertake the 16-day and 1,300 km yatra from Sasaram that will conclude with a rally in Patna on September 1.

“Whenever Rahul Gandhi ji has set out for a yatra, the democracy of this country has turned a page. ‘Voter Rights Yatra’ will be a historic march. It will prove to be a milestone in the history of our democracy,” the Congress’ media and publicity department head, Pawan Khera, said at a press conference at Indira Bhawan in New Delhi.

“We will not accept that the Election Commission becomes a compartment of this so-called ‘double engine’. We are fighting against this and will continue to do so in the future,” he added.

The party has been protesting against the special intensive revision of electoral rolls, alleging the EC’s exercise is aimed at “disenfranchising voters” in Bihar ahead of the assembly elections due later this year.

The Congress urged the people of Bihar to join the yatra for their rights and entitlements so that democracy can get a direction from Bihar.

“The yatra, starting in Bihar from August 17, is a journey to make people aware because the conspirators will not be deterred and they will try to steal votes,” Khera said. “The yatra will conclude with a huge rally in Patna on September 1, and the people of the INDIA bloc will participate in it.”

He added that the yatra has been planned to fight for the right of ‘one person-one vote’. “It is possible to breathe freely in independent India because we have the power to vote. Rahul Gandhi has started a struggle so that every citizen of the country can breathe freely,” Kehra said.

“The way the game of adding and deducting fake votes was going on, the BJP people have been caught red-handed,” he claimed, adding that “now, even ordinary citizens are giving evidence of vote theft. When our INDIA bloc colleagues and social workers appealed together, the Supreme Court also had to intervene.”

“This conspiracy was not just to snatch votes. It was a conspiracy to snatch your and our identity. Today, the right to vote is being snatched from the Dalits, the deprived, the oppressed, the exploited, the minorities; tomorrow their participation will be snatched,” Khera alleged.

He claimed that a conspiracy was being hatched to attack the poor, against which the people of the country have raised their voice.

The Yatra will pass through Aurangabad, Gaya, Nawada, Nalanda, Sheikhpura, Lakhisarai, Munger, Bhagalpur, Katihar, Purnea, Araria, Supaul, Madhubani, Darbhanga, Sitamarhi, East Champaran, West Champaran, Gopalganj, Siwan, Chapra and Ara.

Public has woken up: Rahul

Alluding to Bollywood movies, the Congress stepped up its campaign against alleged “vote theft” on Saturday by releasing a new video titled “laapata vote” to highlight the claim.

Posting the video on X, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said, “‘Chori chori, chupke chupke’ no more, the public has woken up.” His party posted the video on its official social media account and said the “theft of your vote is theft of rights”.

“Let’s raise our voice against vote theft together and save our rights,” the party said.

In the video, a man is seen pleading in the police station that his “vote has been stolen” and tells the officials there that “lakhs of votes are being stolen”, leaving the police personnel wondering if their vote has also been “stolen”.

The minute-long video is titled ‘laapata vote’ with ‘ladies’ cut out from between, a reference to the Kiran Rao-directed movie ‘Laapata Ladies’.

The Congress released a video depicting how fake votes were being cast on Wednesday, too. Gandhi had shared that minute-long video and said, “Aapke vote ki chori aapke adhikar ki chori, aapki pehchaan ki chori hai (Theft of your vote is theft of your rights, theft of your identity).”

That video depicts a family entering a polling booth with two people telling them that their votes have already been cast, and it ends with the two persons casting fake votes, showing a thumbs up to an officer sitting at the table with an ‘election chori aayog’ display plate on his table.

The Congress has claimed that “vote chori” was a “do-or-die” issue for it, and announced a roadmap to take its allegations to the people through various activities.

The opposition party has also launched a web portal for people to register and demand accountability from the poll panel against what it called “vote chori”, and express support for the demand for digital voter rolls.

(This story has been updated with latest information)