Minister in Congress-ruled Karnataka questions why party did not raise objections to draft list when it was prepared, puts ‘vote chori’ propagandist Rahul Gandhi in tough spot

Karnataka Cooperation Minister KN Rajanna has stirred up debate in his own party by openly questioning why the Congress stayed quiet about alleged voter list manipulation when it was in power. His comments came just days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the Election Commission of helping in “vote theft” during the last Lok Sabha elections.

According to the media reports, Rajanna said the voter rolls used in those elections were prepared when the Congress government was in charge. “If there were irregularities, why didn’t anyone speak up then? Why were we silent?” he asked, making it clear that he was challenging his own party colleagues.

While Rahul Gandhi has been vocal now about “vote theft,” Rajanna expressed disappointment that nothing was said earlier. “These irregularities happened right in front of us. Staying silent back then is shameful for all of us. We should admit this and make sure we are more alert in the future under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership,” he said.

Rajanna also reacted to news that Rahul Gandhi reportedly went to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence instead of complaining directly to the Election Commission. “I don’t know the details. After the Bengaluru event, I went straight to Tumakuru. I’m not aware of what happened after that,” he clarified.

Rajanna’s unusually frank statements have created a stir in the Congress, raising questions about whether the party has been careful enough in monitoring the electoral process and about how open members can be about mistakes made under their own watch.

Rahul Gandhi’s “vote chori” remarks 

Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi has recently accused the Election Commission of contributing to the creation of fake voters. At a press conference on Thursday, 7th August, he produced statistics from Karnataka’s Mahadevapura Assembly constituency in Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha constituency, saying that several voter entries in the voter list had “house number 0” and that numerous voters were listed at the same address. He called it a major conspiracy to steal elections in favour of the BJP.

However, when local Booth Level Officer (BLO) Muniratna was asked about it, he explained that the house in question was a rental property where tenants kept changing every year. No single family had stayed there permanently for the past 14 years. Many tenants, often migrant workers, had used their rental agreements to get voter IDs but later moved away without changing their registered address.

According to Muniratna, the list of people who no longer lived at that address had already been sent to the Election Commission, and their names will be struck off.  “These occupants are typically job seekers working as security guards, housekeepers, or domestic helpers. After acquiring voter IDs, many vacate the premises, but their names remain on the electoral rolls,” as per the India Today report. Although they were no longer residing there, they frequently kept their voter IDs listed at the old address so that they could continue to vote in elections.

This resulted in many voter IDs listing the same address, but it did not imply that everyone of them was residing there simultaneously or that there was any systematic fraud.

Despite this, Rahul Gandhi claimed that over one lakh votes in Mahadevapura out of a total of 6.5 lakh were either duplicates or linked to fake addresses. He presented these figures as proof of “vote chori” and argued that the BJP benefited from such irregularities.

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