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Poll body officials to Rahul Gandhi after voter fraud allegations: 'Sign declaration or...'
“If Rahul Gandhi believes in his analysis and believes that allegations against ECI are true,he should have no problem in signing the Declaration,"sources said.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday hit back at Rahul Gandhi over his allegations of large-scale voter fraud in Karnataka, challenging the Congress leader to either sign a formal declaration affirming his claims or apologise to the nation.
“If Rahul Gandhi believes in his analysis and believes that his allegations against ECI are true, he should have no problem in signing the Declaration. If he does not sign, it would mean he does not believe in his own conclusions and absurd allegations. In that case, he should apologise to the nation,” ECI sources said.
"Therefore, he has two options: Either sign the Declaration or Apologise to the Nation for raising absurd allegations against ECI," sources said.
On Thursday, Rahul Gandhi accused the poll body of “colluding” with the BJP to “steal” over 100,000 votes in the Mahadevapura assembly segment of the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat during the 2024 general elections. Presenting his party’s findings, Gandhi claimed a six-month analysis by a 40-member team uncovered thousands of duplicate entries, fake addresses, invalid photos, and suspicious Form 6 applications.
Gandhi’s allegations came in a 72-minute presentation in Delhi, ahead of a Congress rally in Karnataka, where he claimed that a six-month analysis by a 40-member team, using physical electoral rolls “seven feet thick” and in non-machine-readable format, revealed 100,250 “stolen” votes.
The Congress leader argued that while his party led in all other assembly segments of Bangalore Central, the BJP secured a decisive lead of 114,000 votes in Mahadevapura, enabling it to win the seat by 32,707 votes. “EC was colluding with the BJP to steal elections… This is why they don’t give us machine-readable data,” Gandhi alleged.
The BJP won 240 seats in the 2024 general elections, forming the government with allies after the opposition INDIA bloc secured 234 seats. Gandhi claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government survived with a “slender majority” and suggested “stealing” 25 seats was enough to retain power.
His claims prompted immediate reactions from multiple state chief electoral officers, including those in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, who wrote to Gandhi asking for specific names of electors along with a signed declaration under Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, to enable proceedings.
The Karnataka CEO’s letter stated: “You are kindly requested to sign and return the enclosed declaration/oath… so that necessary proceedings can be initiated.” Uttar Pradesh’s CEO countered one of Gandhi’s examples, saying names flagged as duplicate voters in UP did not appear in its rolls.
BJP leaders also launched a scathing attack on Gandhi. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan accused him of a “larger conspiracy” to undermine democratic institutions, while senior party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said Gandhi had “crossed all limits of shamelessness” by calling the EC fraudulent.
BJP MP from Bangalore Central, PC Mohan, dismissed the claims as “another drama” and questioned why no legal challenge was filed within the statutory 45-day period after results.
