6 min readNov 1, 2026 10:57 AM IST First published on: Nov 1, 2026 at 10:57 AM ISTThe INDIA bloc rally today, a major initiative of the Congress party, can be read as yet another determined or desperate effort — depending on which side of the political aisle one belongs — to convince the masses about a deeply “compromised” electoral system. The slogans may be new, the intensity may have altered, but Congress has doubted the electoral system for nearly seven years now.It was immediately after the 2019 general elections that Rahul Gandhi began questioning the electoral process and its transparency. It began with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Wild conspiracy theories spoke of embedded software inside the machines that smartly stole votes and quietly stacked up a majority for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It reminded one of the allegation that floated around after the 1971 general elections, which said that Indira Gandhi had used chemicalised ballot papers to amass a majority. After the EVM mystery, there was noise about the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). Simultaneously, electoral bonds became contentious, although Congress had collected huge sums through the process. Next, the appointment of election commissioners became a point of strife, and dissent notes flew around. Finally, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has led to a blunt charge of stolen elections.AdvertisementNone of these issues, individually or collectively, have achieved critical mass or reached a boiling point among those who really matter — the voters. At least, there is little evidence to make a contrary argument. The allegations do not seem to have impacted the standing of the BJP among voters. The results of the recent MLC elections, held in four corners of the nation, on ballot papers, if treated as a sample of the nation’s mood, do not in any way indicate a major surge of anger against the BJP. Besides, some senior Congressmen and ministers in Congress-ruled states and elsewhere have openly endorsed the outcomes of the SIR process. This has made one wonder if the Congress leadership is labouring over a narrative that is simply not working on the ground.Also Read | Turning democracy into a farceThe SIR, right from the beginning, was sold as a process of exclusion, of weeding out the unwanted. It was not presented as an inclusive exercise of periodic cleansing of electoral rolls. It is this negative approach that has provoked extreme ideological narratives, while the SIR by itself may not have created as much rupture among the voters. But then, this approach is what has precisely helped the BJP polarise the voting populace across the nation. By building an aggressive anti-SIR narrative, the Congress may have unwittingly aided the BJP to continue on its path of electoral consolidation.Ironically, the Congress’ hard focus on the election system happened after the 2024 results, in which the Modi-led BJP had lost its majority and the Congress had made decent gains. Even after the vote chori charge deepened, Congress has won important assembly elections in states. These contradictions have helped the BJP build a commonsensical defence. This has also helped them state that the vote chori narrative is a deliberate one, viciously conceived by a perpetual loser and no-hoper to delegitimise the Modi regime.AdvertisementIt also appears that Congress’ attempt under Rahul Gandhi is not to convincingly prove the vote chori charges, but to ceaselessly build a narrative that the Modi regime is morally decrepit. Rahul Gandhi perhaps wants to morally position himself as superior to Modi. More than building a data consensus about an “illegitimate” mandate, it is about wrapping the BJP in a symbolic shroud of moral death. That makes the issue deeply political and ideological as well.No state where the voter lists have been massively trimmed has seen the disenfranchised hit the streets. The calm on the streets is not eerie either, or something impending. Even if one assumes that such anger has a long gestation period, there is no mobilisation of disenfranchised voters happening at the ground level either by Congress or its allies.you may likeIf one assumes that Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, an ally of the Congress, spends as much time as Rahul Gandhi to amplify the “vote chori” allegations before the Uttar Pradesh elections, instead of engaging in realpolitik, the big question is whether that will be read as admitting defeat even before the battle has begun. The BJP will seize any such opportunity to present him as a loser. The chori allegation may be symbolically rich but strategically weak. The same logic applies to the symbolism of mock parliaments and mock impeachments. It may render the Opposition as non-serious, as having lost control of real function, and having been reduced to mere symbolic players. That does not help the muscular electoral game.The ideological components of the anti-BJP agitation have also been very confusing. There are elements from the left and far-left, without a considerable mass base, trying to capture the moment and shine in it. Then there is the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which has endorsed the November 1 rally. In this, the Congress looks sandwiched between densely ideological past masters and the new unformed and unframed. The CJP endorsing the rally could mean that they no longer believe that they can operate alone as an apolitical pressure group, but it may also indicate that Congress needs a fledgling force to renew its connections with the people. Both are paradoxically betting on each other’s imagined strengths.Srinivasaraju is a senior journalist and author of The Conscious Network: A Chronicle of Resistance to a Dictatorship