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‘Taken Constitution’s oath': Rahul Gandhi responds as spat with Election Commission over ‘vote theft’ intensifies
Rahul Gandhi responded to the Election Commission's demand to submit an affidavit following his claims of collusion between the BJP and the poll panel.
Rahul Gandhi of the Congress on Friday responded to the Election Commission of India's comments, a day after making explosive claims of a "huge criminal fraud" in polls through collusion between the BJP and the poll panel.
The ECI, according to sources, had asked the Congress MP to sign the declaration by Chief Electoral Officers of Maharashtra and Karnataka or apologise for his “absurd” allegations.
“The Election Commission demands an affidavit from me. It says that I must take an oath. I have already taken the oath of the Constitution in Parliament,” Rahul Gandhi said in Bengaluru.
Rahul Gandhi also claimed that the Election Commission websites in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar have been closed.
“Today, when the people of the country are asking questions about our data, the Election Commission has shut down its website. The Election Commission knows that if the public starts questioning them, their entire structure will collapse,” Rahul Gandhi added.
Earlier on Friday, Election Commission sources said if the Congress leader believes in his analysis and feels that his allegations against the EC are true, he should have "no problem" in signing the declaration under electoral rules and submit names wrongfully added or removed from voters' list, news agency PTI reported.
However, if Gandhi does not sign the declaration, it would mean that he does not believe in his analysis and resultant conclusions and “absurd allegations”. In which case, he should apologise to the nation, they said.
What did Rahul Gandhi allege?
- During a press conference in Delhi, Rahul Gandhi claimed on Thursday that there was “vote chori” of 1,00,250 votes in a Karnataka constituency, with 11,965 duplicate voters in the 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 misusing Form 6 of new voters.
- Claiming the “vote chori model” was being used in many constituencies across the country, Rahul Gandhi also said the judiciary needs to get involved in this because “the democracy that we love so much, does not exist anymore”.
- Gandhi said his party analysed voter data from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls for the Mahadevapura assembly segment in the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency.
- "Our internal polls indicated that we were expected to win 16 seats in Karnataka (in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections). However, we won nine. We then focused on the seven unexpected losses and chose the Mahadevapura Vidhan Sabha constituency. All the data we have here is from the 2024 elections, sourced from the Election Commission," he said.
- Gandhi cited that in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP secured 6,58,915 votes in the Bangalore Central seat, winning with a margin of 32,707. "In the Mahadevapura assembly segment, the Congress received 1,15,586 votes, whereas the BJP garnered 2,29,632 votes.
- "The Congress won all the Vidhan Sabhas except Mahadevapura, where the BJP swept and secured a victory margin of 1,14,046 votes. This seat significantly contributed to their election win, and the Lok Sabha result went in their favour on that seat," he said. "This discrepancy is a huge imbalance. So, we started examining the details and discovered that approximately 1,00,250 votes were stolen in the Mahadevapura assembly," he claimed.
- Under the 'duplicate voter' header, Gandhi claimed that 11,965 such voters were found in the Mahadevapura segment.
- He cited that Gurkeerat Singh Dang appeared on the voters' list four times at as many different booths. The former Congress chief also cited the example of a person named Aditya Srivastava being registered as a voter in three states.
- Gandhi said Narendra Modi became the prime minister because of 25 Lok Sabha seats.
- As he reiterated his claims of fake voters being added before the Maharashtra assembly elections, Gandhi said the number of voters added to the list in the five months ahead of the polls was more than the people added in the last five years.
- "Maharashtra, we weren't able to tell the logic behind it. In Maharashtra and Haryana, we saw it right in front of our faces. We said publicly and told the EC that more voters were added in five months than in five years in Maharashtra. More voters than the entire population of Maharashtra," Rahul Gandhi said.
- "Huge jump in voter turnout after 5 pm. Our alliance got wiped out while the alliance swept in the Lok Sabha. At the state level, between Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha, one crore voters came in," he added.
What Election Commission said
The chief electoral officers of three states on Thursday asked Gandhi to share the names of electors he claimed were either included or excluded wrongfully from the voter lists along with a signed declaration for the poll authorities to initiate “necessary proceedings” in the matter.
The Maharashtra chief electoral officer (CEO) has asked him to submit a sworn affidavit and provide specific evidence of alleged inclusion or deletion of electors from the voter rolls.
The Maharashtra CEO's letter cites Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, which allows for a registration officer to ask the claimant to submit proof under oath regarding any objections and claims.
"It is understood that during a Press Conference held today, 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 along with the name(s) of such elector(s) so that necessary proceedings can be initiated," the CEO's letter to Rahul Gandhi said.
The CEO also reiterated that the electoral rolls were "prepared in a transparent manner," and noted that both the draft and final electoral rolls were shared with the Congress in August and September 2024.
"The electoral rolls were shared in August 2024 and September 2024, and the party did not file any appeals during that time," the CEO added.
A similar notice was issued by the Karnataka CEO earlier in the day, asking Gandhi to submit an affidavit and supporting evidence of his claims of large-scale voter fraud in the Mahadevpur segment of the Lok Sabha constituency.
(With inputs from PTI and ANI)
