Rahul Gandhi accuses ECI of colluding with BJP to carry out vote theft

In the 8-minute-long video, Rahul Gandhi doubles down on the Election Commission of India, adding that the punishment will be meted out to those who were involved in the scam

Leader of Opposition (LOP) in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi released a video on X, accusing the Election Commission of India (ECI) of colluding with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to carry out "vote theft".

 

In a post on X, Gandhi accused the election commission of vote theft and said, "Vote theft is not just an electoral scam, it is a major betrayal committed against the Constitution and democracy. Let the nation's culprits hear this - times will change, punishment will surely be meted out." 

 

Rahul Gandhi's allegations against ECI, BJP

 

In the 8-minute-long video, Gandhi doubles down on the ECI, adding that the punishment will be meted out to those who were involved in the scam.

 

 

This comes a day after Gandhi held a press conference in which he levelled the allegations of a "vote chori" model being followed in several constituencies across the country. In the video, Gandhi explains the investigation done by the Congress party to uncover the truth. Citing the probe, Gandhi repeated his claims of over 100,000 votes being stolen through five types of manipulation in the Assembly segment of Mahadevapura in Karnataka's Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat.

 

He added, "I am confident that there are more than 100 such seats in India. What has happened here has happened in those seats as well." 

 

"If the BJP had 10-15 seats less, Modi would not have been the prime minister and there would have been an INDIA bloc government", Gandhi claimed.

 

Gandhi cited examples from the probe conducted by the party and claimed that there was a theft of over 100,250 votes in the Mahadevapura segment. He added that 11,965 were duplicate votes, 40,009 had fake and invalid addresses, 10,452 were bulk voters or single-address voters, 4,132 voters had invalid photos, and 33,692 voters were misusing the Form 6 of new voters.

 

He also accused the ECI of not sharing digital data and only handing over physical data, which means that over hundreds of thousands of papers had to be sorted manually. The reason for this, Gandhi says, is that the election agency's reality would be out. 

 

Earlier on Thursday, Gandhi also hosted a meeting of the INDIA bloc leaders and gave them a presentation on his "vote chori" allegations. At the dinner at Gandhi's residence in Delhi, the leaders of the opposition parties also discussed their strategy about the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar. Gandhi also informed the leaders of the "evidence of vote theft" he presented at a press conference earlier in the day.

 

Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls in Bihar

 

Gandhi also called out the SIR process in Bihar and called it an "institutionalised chori". Since the monsoon session of Parliament began, the opposition parties have been demanding a discussion on the SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar.  

Election commission responds to Rahul Gandhi’s claims

  The Election Commission has responded to the allegations made by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi. Sources in the commission said that if the Congress leader truly believes in his analysis and stands by his allegations against the ECI, he should have no objection to sending a signed declaration and oath to that effect. “If Rahul Gandhi does not sign the Declaration, it would mean that he does not believe in his analysis and resultant conclusions and absurd allegations. In which case, he should apologise to the nation,” sources in the Election Commission said, quoted by news agency ANI.  Sources in the Election Commission said Gandhi has two options: either he signs the declaration or apologise to the nation for raising absurd allegations against the ECI.