EC terms Rahul Gandhi's vote theft allegations 'misleading', demands signed declaration

New Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) on Thursday termed Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi's allegations of manipulation in the voter list 'misleading'. A post by EC on social media platform X read, "The statements made are Misleading." It also shared a statement from the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Karnataka, requesting Rahul Gandhi to submit a signed declaration for necessary action.

The EC also asked Mr Gandhi to provide the names of voters whom he alleged were wrongly included or excluded from the voter list.

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It said that Rahul Gandhi must either submit a formal declaration under the rules of election conduct, highlighting the alleged discrepancies, or stop "misleading" the public and making "baseless allegations" against the EC. In a letter addressed to Gandhi following his press conference in Delhi, the CEO wrote, "You mentioned the inclusion of ineligible voters and the exclusion of eligible voters in the voter list. Please sign and return the attached declaration/affidavit under Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, including the names of such voters, so that necessary action can be initiated."

Rahul Gandhi alleged "vote theft" of 1,00,250 votes in the Mahadevapura assembly constituency during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Gandhi added that the Congress expected to win 16 seats in Karnataka, but managed only nine and after the loss, the party reviewed the results and focused on Mahadevapura, where it found serious voter discrepancies. He said, "This discrepancy is a major imbalance… we discovered that nearly 1,00,250 votes were stolen in Mahadevapura assembly."

Gandhi supported his claims through a live presentation, showcasing examples of fake and duplicate voters. He said, "This is data from the Election Commission itself, and the Commission claims to conduct free and fair elections. There are one lakh fake voters in just one assembly constituency… the evidence is absolutely clear."

He went further to allege nationwide fraud, stating, "We are fully convinced that this crime is happening on a large scale across the country. The Election Commission is trying to destroy the evidence."

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Addressing the Election Commission, Rahul Gandhi said, "Take this as my sworn statement." In response to the Commission's demand for a signed declaration, he replied, "I am a politician. What I say to the people is my word. I'm saying this publicly to the people -- treat this as my oath."

Rahul further added, "The interesting thing is, they haven’t denied this information… they know the truth." He concluded, "We know that you (the Election Commission) have done this across the country."