NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday stepped up his attack on the Election Commission of India, as he showed “proof” of what he called “vote chori” in the recently concluded polls in which his party was decimated beyond popular predictions. During a press briefing, the Lok Sabha MP ran through a presentation, along with a spiral-bound stack of documents, which he claimed were extracted from the “7-foot pile” of electoral rolls Election Commission of India had provided to the party.The documents, Rahul Gandhi said, were “criminal evidence” of how electoral rolls were beefed up ahead of the polls. He said 1,00,250 votes were stolen in five ways in the Mahadevpura assembly constituency of the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat.
- Duplicate vote: 11965
- Fake and invalid address: 40009
Bulk voters in a single address: 10452- Invalid photos: 4132
- Misuse of Form 6: 3369
Duplicate votesFirst example: In a slide shown by the Congress party, a voter named Gurkirat Singh Dhang appears four times in four different polling booths in the constituency. Dhang appears in booth numbers 116, 124, 125 and 126.“This is not just one person. This is thousands of people in one assembly,” Rahul Gandhi said.
Durkirat Singh Dang
Second example: A voter named Adtiya Shrivastava appears in four different voters’ lists in three different states of Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Same voter mutlipe states
Fake and invalid addressThere were voters whose house numbers in the address allegedly showed “zero”. Father’s name showed: ilsdfhug. Father’s name of another voter read: dfoigaidf“There are three types. Either the address does not exist, or the address is zero, or the address cannot be verified. These are 40,000 voters,” claimed Rahul Gandhi.
“Invalid address”
Bulk voters in a single addressThe Congress party presented a photo of two rooms, claiming that 80 and 46 voters were registered to be living in a single room, respectively.
“Bulk voters in single address”
‘Invalid’ photosThe party showed voter rolls that had photos that were smaller than the required size, making it difficult to identify or didn’t have at all.
‘Invalid’ photos
Misuse of Form 6Giving a reference of a voter named Shakun Rani, Rahul Gandhi claimed her name appeared twice — once with Shakun being in the name box and Rani being in the surname box. However, in the other form, Shakun Rani appeared (with zoomed-in photo) in the name box, with surname being empty. The voter had her name on two voter lists.
‘Misuse’ of Form 6
Meanwhile, the Karnataka Election Commission has asked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to submit a formal declaration supporting his “vote chori” (vote theft) claim, along with the names of electors allegedly wrongfully included in the voter list, in order to initiate necessary proceedings. Karnataka chief electoral officer (CEO) is expecting the signed Declaration and Oath from Rahul Gandhi by today evening, sources told TOI. Asserting that the electoral rolls were prepared in a transparent manner, the Karnataka poll body said: “Election results can be questioned only by way of election petition before the Hon’ble high court”. “You are kindly requested to sign and return the enclosed Declaration/Oath under Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, along with the name(s) of such elector(s) so that necessary proceedings can be initiated,” Karnataka chief electoral officer wrote in a letter to Rahul Gandhi. The attached declaration form with the letter says submitting false evidence is punishable under Section 227 of BNS, and also that making a false declaration in connection with the electoral roll is punishable under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act 1950.Rahul Gandhi hits back at the ECIReacting to the election commission, Rahul said: “I’m saying it publicly to everybody. Take it as an oath. This is their data, and we are displaying their data. This is not our data”. “Interestingly, they haven’t denied the information,” he further said. “I’m a politician. What I say to the people is my word. I’m saying it publicly to everybody. Take it as an oath. This is their data, and we are displaying their data. This is not our data. This is Election Commission data. Interestingly, they haven’t denied the information. They haven’t told the voter list that Rahul Gandhi is talking about are wrong. Why don’t you say they wrong? Because you know the truth. You know that we know that you have done this across the country,” the Congress leader told news agency ANI.
