NEW DELHI — Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi launched a fierce offensive against the Union government on Friday, accusing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of orchestrating a systematic plot to disenfranchise poor citizens and manipulate future elections. The political clash erupted after Union Minister Lalan Singh announced that the Centre would replace Aadhaar with Voter ID cards and biometric verification to clear payments for government welfare beneficiaries.
Singh asserted that Aadhaar had lost institutional integrity due to rampant street-level forgery. "The basis for payment to the beneficiaries will not be the Aadhaar card," Singh said in a video address cited by the Congress leadership. "The Aadhaar card is now available from organizations in every street. Just ask them, and they will get an Aadhaar card ready for you in five minutes. For the payment of all the beneficiaries, the biometric and the EPIC number—the voter ID's EPIC number—will be the basis and the payment will be made based on that."
Gandhi pushed back instantly. He called it outright blackmail.
Writing on social media platform X, Gandhi claimed the shift directly ties fundamental social safety nets to voter rolls currently undergoing a controversial overhaul. He alleged the Election Commission of India's Special Intensive Revision drive serves as a covert filter to scrub opposition voters off the rolls before elections, now leaving those stripped of voting rights without food rations or state welfare.
"Under the guise of SIR, millions of names are being struck off voter lists; if not stopped, even more will be removed," Gandhi stated. "Whose names are being targeted the most? Those who are furious with the BJP."
Gandhi aimed his sharpest fire at Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, accusing the poll body's leadership of partisan alignment with the ruling party to manufacture a permanent parliamentary majority. He argued that tying basic welfare survival to a fragile electoral ledger creates a coercive dynamic where citizens lose constitutional entitlements if local officials strike them off registration registries.
"Name struck, vote gone. Vote gone, rights gone," Gandhi said. "This isn't politics to win elections; it's an arrangement to steal elections and a permanent setup to cling to power. Voting is your right, not a condition. A poor person's pension cannot be enslaved to their voter card. This isn't just vote theft; it's rights theft."
The Union government and the Election Commission have yet to issue a formal rebuttal to Gandhi's accusations, even as opposition blocs prepare to challenge the revised beneficiary authentication framework during upcoming parliamentary sessions.