Shiv Sena MP Milind Deora slams Congress over ‘vote theft’ allegations

New Delhi: Shiv Sena MP Milind Deora on Tuesday came down heavily on Congress for alleging “vote theft” and irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, saying the party should first address its own lack of internal democracy.

In an interview with ANI, Deora said the Congress should first put its own house in order before commenting on India’s electoral system. He also dismissed Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of “vote chori”.

“In 2014, when Congress got its lowest tally ever, 44 MPs, if I’m not mistaken, the Congress was in power. So, if the election commission was being manipulated, who was manipulating it? It’s a ridiculous argument. I would tell many friends in the Congress, one day you’re blaming the media, one day you’ll blame the judiciary, one day you’ll blame social media platforms, one day you’ll blame EVMs. Now, from EVMs, you’ve gone to the electoral rolls. These are merely excuses, ultimately stemming from a lack of inner-party democracy. The day a particular party democratises itself, that’s the day I’ll be willing to listen to them comment on strengthening India’s democracy,” Deora said.

The Shiv Sena MP stressed that political parties must first embrace internal democracy. “If a party doesn’t have inner party democracy, if the party doesn’t conduct elections, the party doesn’t allow people to rise on merit; instead, mediocrity is rewarded, nobody will trust that party to fight... for strengthening India’s democracy. The first thing you have to do is fix democracy within,” he said. (ANI)

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