Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition Congress party in India, recently said he would detonate an 'atomic bomb' by proving that the Election Commission had engaged in rigging.
He detonated the bomb at a press conference, titled 'Vote Chori Ka Atom Boma Sabut', on August 7. In the 1-hour and 12-minute conference, Gandhi accused the Election Commission of rigging and vote stealing.
What are the allegations?
Accusing the Election Commission (EC) of "criminal fraud" and collusion with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to steal elections, Gandhi claimed that 100,250 "fake votes" were created in the Mahadevapura Assembly seat under the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency in order to ensure a win for the BJP.
He listed five different ways through which the alleged vote theft was done: duplicate voters, fake and invalid addresses, bulk voters at a single address, invalid photos, and the misuse of Form 6.
He alleged that the EC has given an opportunity for fake voters to cast a ballot in the Lok Sabha elections, providing an advantage which the BJP used to rig the vote.
For instance, Gandhi claimed that an individual named Gurkeerat Singh Dang was registered as a voter in four different booths, with four separate electoral photo identity card numbers. Another voter, Aditya Srivastava, had his name registered in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai in Maharashtra, and Bengaluru in Karnataka.
He claimed that there were hundreds of such incidents, also adding that 68 voters had provided the location of a bar as their primary address.
The most vote rigging occurred in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Mahadevpura, an assembly constituency in Bengaluru.
Gandhi said that there was a tough contest in Bengaluru Central in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Congress candidate Mansur Ali Khan was leading for most of the time, but ultimately lost to BJP's PC Mohan by 32,707 votes.
Gandhi claimed that Congress was expected to win 16 out of 28 seats in Karnataka, but could secure only 9.
Blaming vote rigging for this, Gandhi said, "A total of 6,26,000 votes were cast in Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha. BJP won by a margin of 32,707 votes. In Mahadevpura, Congress got 1,15,586 votes and BJP got 2,29,632 votes. Except for this one seat, Congress won all the assembly seats."
Gandhi further said, "We have found evidence of 100,250 votes being stolen. The theft was done in five different ways. Somewhere fake voters, somewhere fake addresses or many voters at the same address."
Gandhi also claimed there was vote rigging in Maharashtra.
Referring to the Haryana elections, Gandhi said that Congress did well in Haryana in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, but lost the assembly elections. The EC did not provide CCTV footage of the polling stations in violation of the rules. He called this decision suspicious.
Gandhi also said that there are 11,965 fake voters in Haryana. The same voter's name is on the list more than once. Fake addresses have been found for 40,009 people.
At this time, Gandhi questioned why the EC did not publish a digital voter list. If a digital voter list was published, their fraud would have come to light in 30 seconds, he said.
He said votes were stolen in the Maharashtra elections, which is why Congress lost the elections.
He claimed that the names of 40 lakh suspicious voters were registered. Gandhi questioned how the number of voters in Maharashtra suddenly increased so much.
He added that if the BJP had lost 25 more seats, then BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have lost power. This is the reason the BJP had orchestrated these events, he alleged.
Gandhi also warned EC officials that they would have to answer for rigging the voter list, saying, "No matter what position you hold, senior or junior, you will not be forgiven."
The EC has already responded to Gandhi's allegations. It has asked him to submit evidence to back up his claims. However, the BJP is yet to officially respond.
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