BENGALURU: A day after alleging that over one lakh votes were “stolen” in Karnataka’s Mahadevapura assembly constituency, opposition Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday intensified his attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI), accusing it of colluding with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and engaging in large-scale voter list manipulation.
Speaking at a “Vote Adhikar” rally in Bengaluru alongside Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and other senior leaders, Gandhi hit out at the poll body for demanding an affidavit under oath to support his claims. He said the ECI should answer his questions instead of threatening opposition leaders.
“Instead of threatening us, threatening me, the Election Commission should answer five questions,” Gandhi told the gathering. “Why are you not giving voter lists in a digital, machine-readable format? Why are you destroying video evidence? Why is ECI committing massive fraud in the voter list? Why is ECI threatening the opposition? Why is ECI behaving like an agent of the BJP?”
The remarks come a day after Gandhi alleged that the Congress lost the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 general elections because more than one lakh votes were “stolen.”
The ECI, in its response, said Gandhi should either submit his allegations in the form of an affidavit or apologise to the nation.
Gandhi also demanded that the poll body release machine-readable voter lists and preserve CCTV footage from polling stations to ensure electoral transparency.
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