TMC Leaders Yusuf Pathan, Lalitesh Tripathi To Join 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' in Bihar on Sep 1

Yusuf Pathan and Lalitesh Tripathi will represent the Trinamool Congress in the concluding leg of the 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' in Bihar on September 1, party sources said on Saturday. The march, launched by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on August 17, aims to highlight the alleged assault on people’s right to vote through the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar.

"The party has decided that Yusuf Pathan and Lalitesh Tripathi will represent the AITC in the September 1 rally,” a senior TMC functionary told PTI. The 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' will culminate with a procession in Patna on Monday, he said.

Both the Congress and the TMC are part of the opposition bloc -- INDIA -- at the national level. Addressing a public rally in Siwan on Friday as part of the Congress' ongoing 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' in Bihar, Gandhi claimed that BJP leaders have become jittery as the Narendra Modi government at the Centre has been "caught stealing votes with the help of the Election Commission".

The opposition parties have been alleging that the deletion of names of 65 lakh people from the draft electoral rolls published as part of the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise was an "assault" on their right to vote.

The Election Commission (EC) had come out with the names of 65 lakh people who were removed from the draft electoral rolls. The development came after the Supreme Court directed the EC to publish the deleted names by August 19 and file a compliance report by August 22.