In parliament: Have100% proof EC allowed vote theft in Karnataka elections, alleges Rahul
Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Thursday launched a blistering attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI), alleging it enabled cheating in a constituency in Karnataka, of which the Congress had “100 per cent proof”.
“The Congress has concrete 100 per cent proof that the ECI allowed cheating in a constituency in Karnataka,” Gandhi said, warning the poll panel that it would not get away with this “because we are going to come for you”.
We are going to come for you
I want to send a clear message to the Election Commission — if you think you are going to get away with this, if your officers think they are going to get away with this, you are mistaken, you are not going to get away with this because we are going to come for you. Rahul Gandhi, lok sabha leader of opposition
Gandhi further alleged that the Election Commission was not functioning as the Election Commission of India and was “not doing its job”.
He claimed elections were being “stolen” in India and said his party had figured out the modus operandi of the “votes theft” by studying a Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka.
Gandhi said he would present to the people and the Commission, in black and white, how the “theft of votes” was being carried out.
ECI sources, in response, said that if an election petition had been filed, it would be prudent to wait for the High Court’s verdict instead of making “baseless allegations”.
When asked about the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav’s reported comments that boycotting the Bihar Assembly polls was an option, Gandhi reiterated that his party had “concrete 100 per cent proof” of cheating allowed by the ECI in a Karnataka seat.
“Not 90 per cent — when we decide to show it to you, it is a 100 per cent proof,” said the Rae Bareli MP.
“We just looked at one constituency and we found this. I am absolutely convinced that constituency after constituency, this is the drama that is taking place. Thousands and thousands of new voters — how old are they? 45, 50, 60, 65. Thousands and thousands of them in one constituency. This is one thing: voter deletion, voter addition, new voters who are way above 18 (is going on)… so we have caught them,” he alleged.
“I want to send a message to the Election Commission — if you think you are going to get away with this, if your officers think they are going to get away with this, you are mistaken, you are not going to get away with this because we are going to come for you,” Gandhi said, addressing reporters at Parliament House.
His remarks came after poll officials, during house-to-house visits in the ongoing SIR in Bihar, found that over 52 lakh voters were not present at their registered addresses.
The ECI, in its defence, tagged a post on X from the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Karnataka, stating that electoral rolls are prepared transparently and copies were shared with recognised political parties during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
It described Gandhi’s remarks against the Chief Election Commissioner concerning the Karnataka elections as “unwarranted”.
The poll panel also noted that regarding the 2024 Karnataka electoral rolls, not a single appeal was filed with either the District Magistrate or the CEO — a valid legal remedy available to the Congress under Section 24 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
It added that, in terms of the conduct of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, of the 10 election petitions filed, not a single one was submitted by any losing Congress candidate — a legal remedy available under Section 80 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
India