EC Should Give Us Voter Lists, Video Recordings From Last 10 Years: Rahul Gandhi

BENGALURU: While launching a scathing attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI) of being a hand in glove in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruling at the Centre, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of occupying the post through “votes theft” and stated Modi is latching on to the post by a mere 25-Lok Sabha seats difference between BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and opposition bloc India National Development Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A) led by Congress party.

In oblique reference to “votes theft,” he alleged the BJP and its allies won about 34 Lok Sabha seats by a margin of 34,000 votes or less in Parliamentary polls of 2024. Rahul Gandhi, addressing a gathering as part of “Voter Adhikar” rally and protest in Bengaluru at Freedom Park, stated “We have proved votes theft on one Lok Sabha (referring to Mahadevapura Assembly seat of Bengaluru city) and if ECI provides us electronic data (sought by us), then, charges of votes thefts in other seats will be also proved.”

Suspecting "votes theft" across the country, Rahul Gandhi said “We suspected foul play in electoral lists after the Maharashtra Assembly elections in 2024 and then started the ground work to gather information to find if anything wrong was going on.”

Recalling he said, soon after Parliamentary elections in April/May-2024, Maharashtra went for Assembly elections in a gap of four months but to the utter surprise, about 1 crore new voters were added to the electoral list in what appears to be a “magic” sort of a thing. While, vote share of I.N.D.I.A. bloc parties in Maharashtra Assembly elections remained unchanged to that of Lok Sabha election but BJP and its allies gained considerably with the addition of about one crore new voters. Continuing, he said, wherever new voters casted their rights, nominees of BJP and its allies won in Maharashtra.

In a similar way, Rahul Gandhi said, Congress party in Karnataka was expected to win in about 16 out of 28 Lok Sabha seats but ended up winning 9 seats and decided to check what went wrong.

To do analysis, he said, Mahadevapura Assembly seat, a reserved seat for Scheduled Castes, a part of Bengaluru Central Parliamentary seat was chosen and after six-months of analysis of the electoral list, it was detected that out of 6.5 lakh voters in Mahadevapura seat, as many as 1.25 lakh were “votes thefts” which included either fake/invalid voters, duplicate voters, bulk voters among others. Rahul Gandhi alleged “Out of 6 votes in Mahadevapura, 1 vote has been a theft one.”

In a word of caution to ECI, Rahul Gandhi said “If you think you can escape (from your wrongdoings)” and asked ECI officials do a rethink and the Leader of Opposition said “A time will come when ECI will be caught (of its wrongdoings) one by one.” Rahul told ECI officials “Do remember my words” and warned ECI “You will have to face opposition parties at one point of time.”

Charging ECI of acting to the tunes of BJP, Rahul Gandhi said “ECI is not for BJP but should work for the Constitution” accused ECI of removing its website in the States of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar just after citizens of the country started to question over Congress released data on “votes thefts.”

"The fear of getting exposed made the ECI remove its websites in these States," he accused and asked ECI to provide him with all electronic data/ videography of polling booths of the last decade. He stated “If you engage in destroying electronic data, then, it will be construed as ECI is encouraging a crime in the country.”

Over alleged “votes thefts” in Mahadevapura Assembly seat, Rahul Gandhi termed it a “criminal act against Karnataka and asked the State Government to investigate and initiate action against erring ECI officials.

President of All India Congress Committee (AICC) Mallikarjun Kharge, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar spoke.