Did you see opposition wearing 'Minta Devi' shirts? Who is she? Hint: A '124-Year-Old' 'first-time voter'

While protesting against the Election Commission's voter roll revision in Bihar, several opposition MPs wore T-shirts that read "Minta Devi" along with a picture of a woman. At the back of the T-shirts, "124 Not Out" was written.

Who is Minta Devi?

The opposition claimed that Minta Devi is a "124-year-old first-time voter" in the Bihar voters' list. The MPs demonstrated a protest demanding a rollback of the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise in the poll-bound state. When the Indian Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi was asked about Minta Devi, he said, “There are unlimited cases like that. There is more to come.” Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who was there in the protest, said that there were several such cases in which addresses and names of relatives, etc., are all fake.

Meanwhile, Congress MP Manickam Tagore told reporters, “We want a discussion on such issues. How EC has become a party to the BJP. The voter list is full of such fraud.”

‘Who gave them the right to wear t-shirts featuring me?’

News agency ANI talked to Minta Devi, a voter from Bihar's Siwan. She said, "I came to know about this 2-4 days back...Who are they (Opposition MPs) to me? Who is Priyanka Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi to me? Who gave them the right to wear t-shirts featuring me? I think there are discrepancies (in the list). I did not get anyone's (from administration) phone call...Why are they becoming my well-wisher over my age?... This should not be done, I do not want this...I want my details to be corrected...Whoever entered the details, did they do so with their eyes closed?... If I am 124 years old in the eyes of the government, why are they not giving me an old-age pension? My Aadhaar Card mentions 15-07-1990 as my date of birth..."

Why is ECI reluctant to release electronic voter roll data?

Rahul Gandhi has accused the Election Commission of India and the Bharatiya Janata Party of orchestrating “vote chori” during the 2024 General election and the recent state assembly election. According to Gandhi, specifically in the 'Mahadevapura' assembly segment of Bengaluru Central, 100,250 duplicate voters were found. Other anomalies include duplicate, fake or bulk registration, misuse of Form 6, and invalid photos. This is the same seat which the BJP won by around 30000 votes. According to him, in Maharashtra, 40 lakh voters were created. He also accused the ECI of destroying CCTV footage, withholding machine-readable voter data and shutting down state election websites.

The ECI argues that voter rolls contain sensitive personal data, even though they are available publicly in PDF form. Releasing this in bulk will make it easier for targeted political ads, scams and voter profiling. Moreover, historically, parties have used these data to send campaign messages and bot calls. They often cite Right to Privacy judgments from previous cases and the lack of a Data protection infrastructure. But releasing the voter data will make large-scale duplicate audits possible, thus revealing the errors or malpractices. This is exactly the kind of audit that will give Rahul Gandhi's vote theft claim strength in the spine. Thus, ECI controls the narrative by limiting access to the electronic voter data.