Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday alleged that the Election Commission (EC) ‘colluded with the BJP to steal elections’, citing irregularities in key Lok Sabha constituencies. He made the explosive claim during a live-streamed presentation in Delhi.
Rahul Gandhi focused heavily on the Bangalore Central seat, which the Congress lost to the BJP by less than 3 percentage points. He alleged the presence of ‘fake voters’ and ‘duplicate voting’ in the constituency.
The EC hit back, demanding that the Leader of the Opposition submit proof under oath. Gandhi responded, “What I say to the people is my word. Take it as an oath. This is their (EC) data, and we are displaying their data.”
Bangalore Central Result Under Fire
Gandhi said the Congress expected to win 16 of Karnataka’s 28 seats, but won only nine. The party lost Bangalore Central by just 32,707 votes. BJP’s PC Mohan and Congress’s Mansoor Ali Khan both received over 6 lakh votes each. The margin was only 2.58% of the total 13 lakh votes cast.
He zoomed in on Mahadevapura, one of the eight assembly segments of the seat, where the BJP led by over 1 lakh votes.
“It’s a huge imbalance,” he said. Gandhi alleged that 1,00,250 votes were ‘stolen’ there through fake entries and misuse of Form 6.
He showed documents claiming a man was registered in four booths. Another case had a voter listed in Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh. He also claimed that 68 voters were registered at a beer bar address.
Gandhi said Congress workers had physically verified these addresses, including the brewery.
EC Responds; Other States Named
Karnataka’s Chief Electoral Officer wrote to Gandhi, asking him to submit the names of electors with a signed oath so that action could be taken.
Gandhi also made similar claims for Maharashtra and Haryana. In Maharashtra, he said 1 crore new voters appeared between the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections. Congress and allies won the former but lost the latter.
He argued that if the BJP had lost just 25 more seats, they would not be in power. “It was all about management of the results,” he said.
He called for judicial intervention. “The judiciary needs to get involved in this because the democracy that we love so much does not exist,” Gandhi added.
Also Read: Indian Leaders Condemn US President’s Tariff Threat Over Russian Oil Trade
To read more such news, download Bharat Express news apps
