J'khand Congress collects around 16 lakh signatures under 'vote chori' campaign

The Jharkhand Congress has wrapped up its ambitious ‘Vote Chor, Gaddi Chhod’ campaign with a flourish, gathering nearly 16 lakh signatures from citizens across all 81 assembly constituencies — a sweeping public appeal for clean and fair elections.

On Monday, the party dispatched the signed forms to the AICC headquarters in New Delhi in a specially designed vehicle, ceremoniously flagged off by Jharkhand Congress president Keshav Mahato Kamlesh and party in-charge K. Raju at the state headquarters in Ranchi.

Envisioned as a nationwide movement against alleged electoral malpractice, the campaign ran from 15 September to 15 October, later extended by ten days due to enthusiastic participation. “Despite festivals and logistical hurdles, the public’s response was heartening,” Kamlesh said, adding that the collection could have been even larger with more time.

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Raju noted that around five crore signatures have been gathered from across India, underscoring the campaign’s scale and resonance. “These forms will soon be submitted to the President,” he announced, calling it a people’s mandate for electoral transparency.

The Congress has coupled the signature drive with five key demands — including a machine-readable voter list with photographs, public release of addition and deletion lists before every election, a grievance redressal system for wrongful voter deletions, a clear cut-off date for voter list changes, and prosecution of officials found complicit in voter suppression.

As the convoy carrying thousands of signed forms rolled out of Ranchi, the Congress framed it as a symbolic journey — from the voice of the people to the conscience of the nation.

With PTI inputs