Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, argued that elections were being rigged in the country in favour of the BJP and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). He claimed that India's democracy is being destroyed as the Election Commission (EC) is colluding with the BJP to "steal elections."
Calling it a "crime" against the Constitution, Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the Election Commission must provide CCTV footage from polling centres and the voter list in electronic format to the Opposition if they intend to come clean on the allegations.
Bangalore Central and Mahadevapura
Rahul Gandhi categorically claimed fake names were included into the Bangalore Central voters list; he even categorised them under different heads including duplicate voters, fake voters registered through Form 6, invalid photos etc. The Congress leader cited an analysis of data from a Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka from the 2024 general elections to support his point. The Mahadevapura Assembly segment, which falls under the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency, was the example Rahul Gandhi used to elaborate on the "system" in place to rig the elections.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, BJP's P. C. Mohan won with a margin of 32,707 votes against Mansoor Ali Khan of the Congress. This constituency has consistently backed the BJP in recent times.
What did Rahul Gandhi say about Mahadevapura?
According to Rahul, his team analysed the 2024 Lok Sabha polls voter data from the Assembly segment. He said that while the Congress won six out of seven segments in the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat, it lost in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment, where it was defeated by over 1,14,000 votes.
He claimed that there was "vote theft" of 1,00,250 votes in the constituency, which included 11,965 duplicate voters in one assembly segment, 40,009 voters with fake and invalid addresses, 10,452 bulk voters or single-address voters, 4,132 voters with invalid photos, and 33,692 voters who misused Form 6 for new voters.
According to Rahul's presentation, here's what happened in Mahadevapura of Bangalore Central:
- Duplicate voters: -11,965
- Fake voters with invalid addresses: 40,009
- Bulk voters with single addresses: 10452
- Invalid photos: 4,132
- Fake voters registered through Form 6 -33692
- Total fake votes: 1,00,250
Rahul explained with reason that if the BJP can win the 25 seats with a majority of less than 33,000 votes, it can take form the government in the Centre.
Karnataka EC responds to Rahul Gandhi
Meanwhile, the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka asked Rahul Gandhi to share names of electors he claimed were either included or excluded wrongfully from the voters' list of the state along with a signed declaration for the poll authorities to initiate "necessary proceedings" in the matter. In a letter to Gandhi soon after he levelled allegations of vote fraud, the state poll officer said that during a press conference in the national capital, "you had mentioned about the inclusion of ineligible electors and exclusion of eligible electors in the Electoral Rolls... ."
"You are kindly requested to sign and return the enclosed declaration/oath under Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, along with the name(s) of such elector(s) so that necessary proceedings can be initiated."