In a no-holds-barred critique of India’s electoral process, Rahul Gandhi has alleged that a Congress-led internal probe had uncovered large-scale voter fraud in Karnataka’s Mahadevapura Assembly segment during last year’s Lok Sabha elections.
According to reports, the Karnataka election body dared him to take an oath and submit a declaration or his claims or withdraw, what it believed, was his fabricated evidence.
The poll body said, “As you are aware, the electoral rolls are prepared in a transparent manner, as per the Representation of the People Act, 1950, the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 and the Instructions issued by the Election Commission of India from time to time.”
It reminded him that election results can only be questioned through an election petition before the Hon’ble High Court.
Gandhi is on record saying, “They’re not in the business of protecting democracy anymore, they’re helping dismantle it. The judiciary needs to get involved in this because the democracy that we love so much does not exist.”
Media outlets, citing sources within the Election Commission, reported that the Karnataka poll office expected Gandhi’s declaration by evening.
The poll office desires that he should firmly sign the oath that very day and post it on his social media handle.
In the oath, he said: “I am aware that making a false declaration in connection with electoral rolls is punishable under Section 31 of the RP Act, 1950. I also understand that giving false evidence is punishable under Sections 227 of the Bhartiya Nyaya Samhita, 2023. I further declare that, although I am not/ I am an elector of the said constituency, I have personal knowledge relevant to this case and am making this statement voluntarily.”
He laid bare what he claimed were shocking discrepancies in voter data. He said their investigation zeroed in on the Mahadevapura Assembly seat after the Congress’s internal polling had predicted a win in 16 seats in Karnataka, but the party ended up with only nine. Out of the seven unexpected losses, Mahadevapura was chosen for closer scrutiny.
“Total votes polled in the (Bangalore Central) Lok Sabha were 6.26 lakh. The BJP won with 6,58,915, securing a margin of 32,707. Then, we looked at Mahadevapura, where Congress got 1,15,586 votes and BJP 2,29,632. Congress won all Vidhan Sabhas, but this one. This seat won them the election.”
He further alleged that over 1,00,250 votes had been “stolen in five different ways: duplicate voters, fake and invalid addresses, bulk voters in a single address. But when we go there, no record of those people living there. One family living in that house.”
Raising serious doubts over the credibility of recent state election outcomes, Rahul Gandhi pointed to the stark reversal in the INDIA Bloc’s performance in Maharashtra. Despite securing 30 out of 48 seats in the Lok Sabha polls, the alliance suffered a crushing defeat in the Assembly elections just five months later — a shift he said could not be dismissed as normal electoral fluctuation.
He observed that, contrary to widespread predictions of anti-incumbency against the BJP, the actual results painted a different picture. Referring to Haryana, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh, he claimed an artificial “ambience” had been engineered to justify the ruling party’s unexpected victories, invoking narratives such as “Ladli Behna,” “Pulwama,” and “(Operation) Sindoor.”
He further alleged that the Election Commission’s scheduling of Assembly elections appeared deliberately “choreographed.” He said that in Maharashtra alone, more voters were added in five months than in the previous five years. While the poll body reported brisk voting at 5:30 PM, Congress booth agents had observed no such activity. “Maharashtra was the first time we saw something was wrong,” he said, adding that the Commission refused to share digital voter rolls for scrutiny.
Meanwhile, veteran BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad blasted Gandhi for his accusations. He told a section of the media, “It has become Rahul Gandhi’s habit to make baseless allegations, face defamation cases and then apologise.”
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