Rahul Gandhi accuses Election Commission of colluding with BJP to ‘steal elections’
Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of stealing elections by adding fake or farzi voters in Maharashtra and Karnataka.He told the media that the bogus voters were added in Maharashtra by means of–Duplicate votersFake and invalid addressesBulk voters at one addressInvalid photosMisuse of Form 6“In Maharashtra, we publicly told the Election Commission that more voters were added in five months than in five years, which raised suspicion,” he said.Gandhi also claimed that the number of new voters even exceeded the population of Maharashtra. He even claimed that at a one-room house in Maharashtra, 80 voters were registered.“At the state level in Maharashtra, we found that between the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections, one crore new voters had entered the picture. So, we approached the Election Commission,” the Congress leader said.“We believe that the Maharashtra election was stolen,” he claimed.He demanded the digital voter data and CCTV footage from the commission, even going on to say that if the ECI does not provide him with the data, the commission is compromised and “they are colluding with the BJP”.“They said we are going to destroy the CCTV footage. This was surprising to us because there was a question in Maharashtra about a massive voting after 5.30 pm for the numbers to add up.”“Our people knew that in the polling booths, no such thing happened. There was no massive voting after 5.30 pm,” he said.In Karnataka, According to LoP Gandhi, the Congress received 6,26,208 votes in Bangalore Central, while the BJP secured 6,58,915 votes — a margin of 32,707.However, a deeper examination of the Mahadevapura Assembly segment, a part of this Lok Sabha seat, revealed a massive discrepancy. Here, BJP polled 2,29,632 votes while the Congress managed only 1,15,586 — a staggering gap of 1,14,046 votes.LoP Gandhi claimed that at least 1,00,250 votes were stolen in this single Assembly segment alone and the same was being done across the country."First, duplicate voters. As many as 11,965 entries were found to be duplicated across multiple booths and even states. Names like Gurkirat Singh and Aditya Shrivastava appeared multiple times and in the case of Shrivastava, his name appeared in different states — Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh,” said LoP Gandhi."Second, fake or invalid addresses where 40,009 voter entries listed addresses that did not exist or were clearly fake (e.g., house number “0”, symbols like “-” or “#”).“We found thousands of such cases and interestingly, in some cases, we found voters’ father’s name mentioned as ‘dfojhaidf’... There are similar such cases as well and it tells us why the EC is hesitating to give us the data,” he said.Dwelling on the issue of mass voters at a single address, he said, "Certain addresses like House No. 35 had 80 registered voters in a single-room dwelling. Another address — a brewery — had 68 voters registered, raising serious questions about legitimacy."“When our people went there to check and cross-verify, we found that in much of such addresses, where dozens of people are allegedly living, were a single-story apartment. When we went there, we were threatened and, in some places, we were told that no such individual lived there,” he said.LoP Gandhi also talked about the 4,132 invalid entries that had either missing photos or photos so small or unclear that identification was impossible and the misuse of Form 6 by 33,629 voters.LoP Gandhi emphasised that this is why the poll panel refuses to provide soft copies of voter rolls or allow proper audit of data. He also alleged the destruction of CCTV footage to eliminate evidence of wrongdoing."This isn’t just a local issue. What happened in Mahadevapura is happening across India,” LoP Gandhi said.“PM Modi needed to win only 25 seats to stay in power. BJP won 25 seats with margins under 33,000. That’s why the EC is hiding the data — it’s protecting a crime, not democracy,” he alleged.He said that the ECI is yet to deny the allegations, and in turn, has asked him to swear under oath about his allegations.He said that such a ‘model’ to steal the election may have taken place on 25, 50, or even 100 seats, but it can be scaled throughout the country. He said that it was a “two-minute” job to do so.(with inputs from syndicated feed)
Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of stealing elections by adding fake or farzi voters in Maharashtra and Karnataka.
He told the media that the bogus voters were added in Maharashtra by means of–
- Duplicate voters
- Fake and invalid addresses
- Bulk voters at one address
- Invalid photos
- Misuse of Form 6
“In Maharashtra, we publicly told the Election Commission that more voters were added in five months than in five years, which raised suspicion,” he said.
Gandhi also claimed that the number of new voters even exceeded the population of Maharashtra. He even claimed that at a one-room house in Maharashtra, 80 voters were registered.
“At the state level in Maharashtra, we found that between the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections, one crore new voters had entered the picture. So, we approached the Election Commission,” the Congress leader said.
“We believe that the Maharashtra election was stolen,” he claimed.
He demanded the digital voter data and CCTV footage from the commission, even going on to say that if the ECI does not provide him with the data, the commission is compromised and “they are colluding with the BJP”.
“They said we are going to destroy the CCTV footage. This was surprising to us because there was a question in Maharashtra about a massive voting after 5.30 pm for the numbers to add up.”
“Our people knew that in the polling booths, no such thing happened. There was no massive voting after 5.30 pm,” he said.
In Karnataka, According to LoP Gandhi, the Congress received 6,26,208 votes in Bangalore Central, while the BJP secured 6,58,915 votes — a margin of 32,707.
However, a deeper examination of the Mahadevapura Assembly segment, a part of this Lok Sabha seat, revealed a massive discrepancy. Here, BJP polled 2,29,632 votes while the Congress managed only 1,15,586 — a staggering gap of 1,14,046 votes.
LoP Gandhi claimed that at least 1,00,250 votes were stolen in this single Assembly segment alone and the same was being done across the country.
"First, duplicate voters. As many as 11,965 entries were found to be duplicated across multiple booths and even states. Names like Gurkirat Singh and Aditya Shrivastava appeared multiple times and in the case of Shrivastava, his name appeared in different states — Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh,” said LoP Gandhi.
"Second, fake or invalid addresses where 40,009 voter entries listed addresses that did not exist or were clearly fake (e.g., house number “0”, symbols like “-” or “#”).
“We found thousands of such cases and interestingly, in some cases, we found voters’ father’s name mentioned as ‘dfojhaidf’... There are similar such cases as well and it tells us why the EC is hesitating to give us the data,” he said.
Dwelling on the issue of mass voters at a single address, he said, "Certain addresses like House No. 35 had 80 registered voters in a single-room dwelling. Another address — a brewery — had 68 voters registered, raising serious questions about legitimacy."
“When our people went there to check and cross-verify, we found that in much of such addresses, where dozens of people are allegedly living, were a single-story apartment. When we went there, we were threatened and, in some places, we were told that no such individual lived there,” he said.
LoP Gandhi also talked about the 4,132 invalid entries that had either missing photos or photos so small or unclear that identification was impossible and the misuse of Form 6 by 33,629 voters.
LoP Gandhi emphasised that this is why the poll panel refuses to provide soft copies of voter rolls or allow proper audit of data. He also alleged the destruction of CCTV footage to eliminate evidence of wrongdoing.
"This isn’t just a local issue. What happened in Mahadevapura is happening across India,” LoP Gandhi said.
“PM Modi needed to win only 25 seats to stay in power. BJP won 25 seats with margins under 33,000. That’s why the EC is hiding the data — it’s protecting a crime, not democracy,” he alleged.
He said that the ECI is yet to deny the allegations, and in turn, has asked him to swear under oath about his allegations.
He said that such a ‘model’ to steal the election may have taken place on 25, 50, or even 100 seats, but it can be scaled throughout the country. He said that it was a “two-minute” job to do so.
(with inputs from syndicated feed)
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