The Election Commission has fact-checked Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi's 'vote chori' claims in recent elections and urged him to sign the oath notices immediately, so respective electoral officers could initiate necessary correction proceedings.
Congress leader Gandhi conducted a press conference on Thursday and charged the electoral roll was manipulated during 2024 Lok Sabha polls and other recent assembly polls in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Congress MP charged the Election Commission is colluding with the BJP to destroy the election system in India.
Responding to Gandhi's allegations, the chief electoral officers of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Haryana have issued notices to the Congress leader and urged him to sign for verification of ineligible voters. Fact-checking his claims, the ECI said in a statement, "If Shri Rahul Gandhi believes what he is saying is true, then he should sign the Declaration/Oath as per Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules 1960 and submit the same to CEOs by today evening itself so that necessary proceedings can be initiated. If Shri Rahul Gandhi does not believe in what he is saying, then he should stop arriving at absurd conclusions and mislead the citizens of India."
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Gandhi demanded that the Commission should come clean and hand over electronic voter lists from the past 10 to 15 years and CCTV footage from the recent polls. "There are going to be consequences for every election officer who is a part of this, no matter how senior or junior you are... Once the opposition comes to power, we are coming after you because we will not let you destroy the foundation of the democracy that our forefathers gave us," Gandhi said.
Gandhi, citing the Lok Sabha polls to Bangalore Central constituency as an example, analysed voter data from seven assembly segments under it and said the BJP won the seat with a margin of 32,707 votes. The Congress leader said that while the Congress won six out of seven segments, it lost in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment in which it was defeated by over 1,14,000 votes.