Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 19: A group of over 270 eminent citizens including retired judges, bureaucrats, diplomats and former Army officers, has slammed the Congress and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, and several other Opposition leaders for attempting to “tarnish” the image of the constitutional institutions, the latest being the Election Commission of India, through “unsubstantiated accusations” under the ‘vote chori’ campaign.
The group has put out an open letter saying the allegations are an “attempt to drape political frustration in the garb of institutional crisis.” The 272 signatories to the letter include 16 retired judges, 123 former bureaucrats, 133 retired Army officers, and 14 former ambassadors.
The letter said some political leaders were resorting to “provocative” charges instead of offering policy alternatives, noting that institutions such as the armed forces, judiciary and Parliament had previously faced similar attacks. It alleged that the EC was now being subjected to “systematic and conspiratorial” attempts to damage its credibility.
After their attempts to tarnish the Indian Armed Forces by questioning their valour and accomplishments, and the Judiciary by questioning its fairness, Parliament, and its constitutional functionaries, now it is the turn of Election Commission of India to face systematic and conspiratorial attacks on its integrity and reputation,” the open letter says. The Congress has accused the Election Commission of working in collusion with the ruling BJP to facilitate the alleged vote fraud. The BJP and the poll body have trashed the allegations.
“We, the senior citizens of civil society, express our grave concern that India’s democracy is under assault, not by force, but by a rising tide of venomous rhetoric directed toward its foundational institutions. Some political leaders, instead of offering genuine policy alternatives, resort to provocative but unsubstantiated accusations in their theatrical political strategy,” it said.
Slamming Gandhi, the letter says he has repeatedly attacked the Election Commission and declared that he has proof that the Election Commission is involved in vote theft. The letter describes the Congress leader’s “atom bomb” remarks as “unbelievably uncouth rhetoric”. “Yet, despite such scathing accusations, there has been no formal complaint filed by him, along with the prescribed sworn affidavit, to escape his accountability for levelling unsubstantiated allegations and threatening public servants in performance of their duty,” it says. They also criticised remarks suggesting that EC officials would be “hounded” after retirement.
“Moreover, several senior figures of Congress and other political parties, leftist NGOs, ideologically opinionated scholars, and a few attention seekers… have joined in with similarly blistering rhetoric against SIR (Special Intensive Revision), even declaring that the Commission has descended into complete shamelessness by acting like the ‘B-team of the BJP’,” they said.
The letter said the “rhetoric” collapsed under scrutiny, as the ECI had publicly shared its SIR methodology, overseen verification by court-sanctioned means, removed ineligible names in a compliant manner, and added new eligible voters. This suggests that these accusations are an attempt to drape political frustration in the garb of institutional crisis,” the statement says. The open letter says the Congress leaders’ behaviour reflects what might be called “‘impotent rage’ – deep anger born of repeated electoral failure and frustration, without a concrete plan to reconnect with the people.”
“When political leaders lose touch with the aspirations of ordinary citizens, they lash out at institutions instead of rebuilding their credibility. Theatrics replace analysis. Public spectacle takes the place of public service. The irony is stark: when electoral outcomes are favourable in certain States where opposition-driven political parties form governments, criticism of the Election Commission disappears. When they are unfavourable in certain States, the Commission becomes the villain in every narrative. This selective outrage exposes opportunism, not conviction. It is a convenient deflection: to give the impression that loss is not a result of strategy, but conspiracy,” it says.
Terming it “selective exposing opportunism,” they called upon civil society and citizens to “stand firmly with the Election Commission” and “demand that political actors stop undermining this vital institution with baseless allegations and theatrical denunciations.”
The letter refers to former Chief Election Commissioners TN Seshan and N Gopalaswami and says their unyielding leadership transformed the Election Commission into a formidable constitutional sentinel. “They did not court popularity. They did not chase headlines. They enforced the rules – fearlessly, impartially, relentlessly.
“Under them, the Commission gained moral and institutional teeth. It became a guardian, not a bystander… Now is the time for civil society and the citizens of India to stand firmly with the Election Commission, not out of flattery, but out of conviction. The society should demand that political actors stop undermining this vital institution with baseless allegations and theatrical denunciations. Instead, they should offer the public serious policy alternatives, meaningful reform ideas, and a national vision rooted in reality,” the letter says.
Citing practices in countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Japan, the letter stressed the need for strong measures to protect electoral integrity in India. “Fake or bogus voters, non-citizens, and individuals who do not have a legitimate stake in India’s future must have no place in deciding its government… across the world, democracies treat illegal immigration firmly,” it said, adding: “The sanctity of our electoral rolls is not a partisan issue – it is a national imperative.”
The signatories also urged the Election Commission to “continue its path of transparency and rigour; publish complete data, defend itself through legal channels when necessary, and reject politics dressed up as victimhood.”
Meanwhile, the Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also slammed the Congress on Wednesday saying the grand old party has become a “burden” and its allies are sinking due to it. Addressing a farmers’ convention in Chhattisgarh’s Dhamtari district, where he disbursed the 21st instalment under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme, Mr Chouhan asserted that the Centre under Prime Minister Narendra Modi won’t tolerate ‘Naxalism and terrorism.’
“Today, the Congress has become a burden. In the Bihar Assembly elections, it joined hands with the RJD, and look at the results. Congress has become such a burden that whichever party it joins, that party sinks. Wherever Rahul Gandhi goes, it is a disaster,” he said.
In the recently concluded Bihar polls, the BJP-led NDA decimated the Mahagathbandhan, an alliance of Congress, RJD and other parties, winning 202 seats in the 243-member House. The Congress won only six seats. “What issues does he (Gandhi) raise? He doesn’t raise the issues of the people…Rahul Gandhi raised the issues of SIR (Special Intensive Revision) and the voter list. He insulted ‘mother’, and Bihar slapped him so hard that now he can’t even breathe and he can’t even get up,” he said.
Targeting the INDIA bloc, he claimed that the opposition alliance is facing internal conflicts and alleged that its constituents are “fragmented and weakening”. He further accused the Congress of enabling “infiltration” in the country for electoral gains. “Was SIR an issue? Tell me, should the voter list be made correctly or not? If the names of ‘ghuspathiye’ (infiltrators) are included in the voter list, should those names be deleted or not? They came from Bangladesh. Is this a country or a dharamshala, where anyone can come and settle whenever they want?
To build its vote bank, the Congress committed the sin of allowing millions of “infiltrators” to enter the country, he said. The BJP government has been saying that the state and central governments will together remove infiltrators in Chhattisgarh or anywhere else in the country. There’s no place for infiltrators here, the Union Minister said. “Congress says ‘let them enter, let them stay; get your names on the voter list, and use our resources’. Congress has committed a sin, the consequences of which it will have to face. Congress will be nowhere,” he said.
The Bihar elections results data showed that the Congress party’s poor performance further worsened in 2025. The Congress’ strike rate in the 2025 polls was 9.8%, the lowest among all “Mahagathbandhan” alliance partners once again, though the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation’s strike rate was only slightly higher at around 10%. The Congress’ strike rate has fallen from over 27% in 2020 and over 22% in 2024.
In contrast, the BJP’s strike rate rose sharply from around 65% in both 2020 and 2024 to over 90% in the 2025 Bihar Assembly Elections. The JD(U), too, improved its strike rate from 74% in 2024 to more than 82% in 2025.
Similarly in respect of contested vote share, the Congress’ performance was 34.1% which was lower than the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s 38.9%. It is also lower than the CPI (ML)(L)’s contested vote share of 35.8%. Moreover, the Congress’ contested vote share has declined from the 41.2% it recorded in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.