INDIA Bloc Ramlila Maidan Rally: Tejashwi Attacks EC and BJP

At a large opposition gathering in Delhi on Sunday, Tejashwi Yadav made some of the sharpest remarks of the day against the Centre and the Election Commission. Speaking at the INDIA bloc rally held at Ramlila Maidan, the RJD leader and Bihar Assembly Leader of Opposition called for the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, to face a sedition case and imprisonment.

Yadav framed the political moment as a historic struggle. He said defending democracy and the Constitution now demanded a fight comparable to the battle of Kurukshetra.

He used the symbolism of the venue to make his point. Ramlila Maidan, he noted, usually hosts programmes linked to the Ramayana, but on this day it had become the stage for a Mahabharata against vote thieves.

Yadav compared the present situation to the epic's origins, recalling that the conflict began with a game of dice rather than a battle. He said Shakuni's methods were being repeated today with the democratic process, and that citizens therefore had no option but to prepare for a decisive struggle.

The RJD leader said the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls had been first launched from Bihar, which he called the mother of democracy. He also raised the TCS tender scam and criticised the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, asserting that it had contributed nothing to the freedom struggle.

He accused those who had once been fearful of the British of now issuing certificates of patriotism and determining who would be allowed to vote. Yadav warned that the greatest danger to democracy lay not in a dictator but in institutions that had become puppets of the government. According to him, constitutional bodies were now making decisions when they should be delivering justice.

Yadav put a direct question to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking whether he was choosing the country or Gyanesh Kumar. He described the contest as one between the voters of India and vote thieves.

He requested the gathering to resolve that democracy would not be allowed to fade under any condition. He reminded the audience that the INDIA alliance had been formed in Bihar.

Yadav declared that the people of Bihar would teach the BJP a lesson and work to remove it from power. He appealed to citizens to unite and struggle collectively for the protection of democracy and the Constitution.