New Delhi, Aug 7: 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, as he cited an analysis in a constituency in Karnataka and said it was “a crime against the Constitution”.
The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha also said that the judiciary needs to get involved in this because “the democracy that we love so much, does not exist anymore”.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC’s Indira Bhawan headquarters here, Gandhi said what his party had collected through research was “criminal evidence” and alleged that the Election Commission was busy destroying such proof across the country.
He said over one lakh votes in the Mahadevapura assembly constituency in Karnataka were found to be fake, duplicate, bulk voters, with invalid addresses and new voters of over 90 years of age added with misuse of Form 6.
He claimed that there was “vote chori” of 1,00,250 votes in the Mahadevapura segment, with 11,965 duplicate voters, 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.
“‘Vote-chori’ is an atom bomb on our democracy,” he said in a post on X soon after the presser.
“I want the nation to know that there is a huge criminal fraud being perpetrated across the country. It is being done by the Election Commission and the party in power and we have given you crystal clear and undoubtable evidence here,” he asserted.
“This is a crime that is being committed against the Indian Constitution, against the Indian flag. This is nothing less than that,” he said, alleging poll rigging in various parts of the country.
Soon after the Congress leader attacked the EC, the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka asked Gandhi to share the names of electors included wrongfully in the voters’ list along with a signed declaration for poll authorities to initiate “necessary proceedings” in the case.
The BJP too termed Gandhi’s charges against EC a “calculated deceit” and accused the Congress of “systematically” attacking constitutional institutions under a larger conspiracy.
Gandhi claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the PM with a slender majority and needed to “steal” only 25 seats to stay in power, and added that the BJP won 25 seats in the Lok Sabha polls with less than 33,000 votes.
The Election Commission is colluding with the BJP and helping them, he alleged, asking the EC to provide the data the Congress wants if it is not partaking in the crime.
Gandhi also hit back at the Election Commission for demanding his signed declaration on his claims, saying he made the remarks publicly and they can “take it as an oath”.
He claimed that the EC is “very scared” to attack him and did not act against him, as it knows that he is speaking the truth.
“I am a politician, what I say to the people is my word. I am saying it publicly to everybody, take it as an oath. Interestingly, they haven’t denied the information.
“They haven’t said the voter lists (shown by me) are wrong, they are saying Rahul Gandhi should say it under oath… they know the truth. We know you (EC) have done this across the country,” the former Congress president said. (PTI)
