NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday repeated his allegation of “vote theft” and demanded the full electronic voter list from the Election Commission, during a rally in Bengaluru.Speaking at the ‘Vote Adhikar Rally’ in Bengaluru, Gandhi said, “I have taken the oath inside the parliament and on the constitution, and EC is asking me to take a oath on the vote theft.“His statement came after Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) from at least three states asked him to submit names of electors he claimed were wrongfully included or excluded from the voter rolls. The EC also asked for a signed declaration so that “necessary proceedings” could be initiated.In a letter to Gandhi soon after he levelled allegations of vote fraud, the Karnataka chief electoral officer (CEO) said that during a press conference in the national capital, “you had mentioned about the inclusion of ineligible electors and exclusion of eligible electors in the Electoral Rolls.”“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.” Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also slammed the Election Commission over its officials asking Rahul Gandhi to share details of his claims on poll rigging under oath. Asked about the issue, Priyanka Gandhi said, “Understand this, the affidavit they are asking for is under a law in which you have to give a petition within 30 days otherwise nothing will happen. So why are they asking for the affidavit. Such a big disclosure has been made. If there is an intentional mistake then investigate it.”Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi, in the Bengaluru rally, also alleged that following the Congress party‘s claims, election commission websites of some states were taken down. “The EC has shutdown Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and other states’ websites after our expose,” he said.He demanded that the EC provide the party with complete access to the electronic voter list for the entire country, along with video records. “We demand EC to give us the electronic voters list of the entire country, give details of videography,” Gandhi said. “If we get the electronic voter list then we will prove that the prime minister of this country has become the PM by way of theft.”He added, “We demand the EC to provide us the 10 years of electronic voters’ lists along with videography.”He further added, “And if this demand are not met, then we will presume the vote theft has occurred across the country.”Targeting election commission officials, Gandhi furthr said, “The EC officials by way of this illegality are attacking the constitution and the poor of this nation.”He concluded his remarks with a warning: “We will take time but we will catch you, we will catch each one of you.”Rahul Gandhi on Thursday had cited an analysis of data from a Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka from the 2024 general elections to allege that the Election Commission is colluding with the BJP to “steal elections” and called it a “crime” against the Constitution.Talking to the media through an online presentation, Gandhi had said they analysed the voter data of Lok Sabha constituency of Bangalore Central and the Mahadevapura Assembly segment in it from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.He said in the whole Lok Sabha seat, the Congress got 6,26,208 votes while the BJP got 6,58,915, a margin of 32,707.Gandhi pointed out that while the Congress won six out of seven segments, it lost in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment in which it was defeated by over 1,14,000 votes.He claimed there was “vote chori” of 1,00,250 votes in the constituency with 11,965 duplicate voters in one assembly segment, 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.Alleging that is being committed throughout the country, he said this is a “crime against the Indian Constitution and the Indian flag”.Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had also backed Rahul Gandhi’s allegations on “vote fraud” in Karnataka and said it was time to save democracy and the Constitution as well as the country.In a post on X, he said, “When a political party raised questions with the Election Commission, it would respond or provide clarification within the bounds of constitutional dignity.”“Today, when someone questions the ECI, instead of responding, it acts like a representative of the ruling party, levelling counter-allegations and making baseless statements without considering the demands of opposition parties,” Kharge said in his X post in Hindi.
