'How were 2024 polls legitimate?' Rahul accuses EC of declaring 140m who voted illegal

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday questioned the legitimacy of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections while addressing the Bharat Summit in Hyderabad. He accused the Election Commission of declaring 140 million people who voted in the polls either "non-existent voters or non-voters".

"If the Election Commission declares 140 million voters illegal, how is the election possibly legitimate?" the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha said. "140 million people who voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha election were declared as either non-existent voters or non-voters a few months ago... If the election commission has declared 140 million voters, who supposedly voted in the 2024 elections, approximately 13% of Indian voters, illegal non-voters, then how is that election possibly legitimate?" he said.

Rahul Gandhi also traced what he described as the erosion of Indian democracy to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, alleging that the polls marked an unprecedented shift in the country's electoral system. "In 2014, we witnessed a completely new election, something we had never seen before. Millions and millions and millions of dollars were injected into the political system," he said. He said the shift had overturned an electoral system that was earlier characterised by close contests and coalition governments. Rahul Gandhi added that the opposition was initially taken by surprise and took nearly a decade to understand the changes.

Turning his attack towards the alleged nexus between big business and political power, Rahul Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of favouring businessman Gautam Adani, claiming that the distinction between the two had disappeared. Referring to Adani's rise in the global wealth rankings, Gandhi said the businessman was ranked around 600th in the world before the BJP came to power but later became the world's second-richest person.

"How did he become the richest man? By a fusion between politics and business. The line between business and politics, between Adani and PM Modi , has evaporated. It does not exist anymore," he said, according to ANI. Rahul Gandhi further alleged that the BJP's assets had grown elevenfold in a decade, linking the party's financial growth to the concentration of political and economic power.

Congress leader also accused the BJP of weakening democratic institutions and said the Congress had struggled to counter the ruling party because its traditional methods of political communication had stopped working. He also expressed confidence that the opposition would defeat Prime Minister Modi, claiming that the pressure on the BJP leadership was becoming increasingly visible. He said the Congress was determined to remove PM Modi from power and described the outcome as a certainty. At the summit, Rahul Gandhi also apologised to foreign delegates who could not attend the event in Hyderabad.