BJP says ‘calculated deceit’, EC asks for signed declaration
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday made explosive claims of a “huge criminal fraud” in polls through “collusion” between the BJP and the Election Commission and called it “a crime against the Constitution”, as he cited an analysis of voter rolls in a constituency in Karnataka last year.
Soon after Gandhi levelled the charge asserting that “vote chori”(vote theft) is an “atom bomb on our democracy”, chief electoral officers of Karnataka and Maharashtra asked Gandhi to share names of electors he claimed were “wrong” in the voters’ list along with a signed declaration to initiate “necessary proceedings” in the matter.
Addressing a press conference at Congress headquarters, Gandhi also alleged that the Maharashtra Assembly poll results last year confirmed the Congress’ suspicion that the election was ‘stolen’. BJP, on the other hand, hit out at Gandhi and termed his allegation a “calculated deceit” and accused the Congress of “systematically” attacking the constitutional institutions under a larger conspiracy against India’s democracy and Constitution. He said what his party had collected through research was “criminal evidence” and alleged that the EC was busy destroying such proof across the country.
Making a presentation, Gandhi said his party analysed voter data of the Mahadevapura Assembly segment in the Lok Sabha constituency of Bangalore Central from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and claimed that over 1 lakh votes were “stolen” through five types of manipulation.
The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha also said the judiciary needs to get involved in this because “the democracy that we love so much, does not exist anymore”.
Later in the evening, Gandhi made a similar presentation to leaders of various opposition parties whom he had invited for a dinner meeting.
EC sources said Gandhi should either sign a declaration under the Conduct of Election Rules and submit the list of people wrongfully included in voters’ list or he should “stop misleading” the people of India and “stop making baseless allegations” against the poll authority.
The sources said the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka is expecting a signed declaration from Gandhi by this evening.
Slamming Gandhi, the BJP accused him of insulting the “discerning decision” of the people of the country by calling its election victory a “fraud”. It said the voters will continue to reject the Congress for such “irresponsible and shameless” character and conduct.