New Delhi: Amid relentless attacks by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over alleged voter data fudging, the Election Commission on Thursday said instead of creating a false narrative by using “dirty phrases” like ‘vote chori’, proof should be given.
In a statement, the EC said the law for “one person one vote” is already in existence since the first elections in 1951-1952.
“If anyone has any proof of any person actually voting twice in any election, it should be shared with ECI with a written affidavit rather than colouring all the electors of India as ‘chor’ without any proof,” it said. The poll authority said that by trying to create a false narrative by using “dirty phrases” like “vote chori” for Indian electors, is not only a direct attack on the crores of Indian electors but also an assault on the integrity of lakhs of election staff.
Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, last week cited data to allege that more than one lakh votes were ‘stolen’ in the Mahadevapura assembly constituency of Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha in the 2024 elections, resulting in the defeat of a Congress candidate.
The EC had directed Gandhi to give a written declaration on his claims.
Gandhi family has history of poll irregularities: BJP Meanwhile, the BJP said on Thursday that Rahul has ended up supporting the Election Commission’s SIR of electoral rolls with his allegations of irregularities in the voters’ list.
At a BJP presser, Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat accused the Gandhi family of tampering with the electoral process by allegedly resorting to bribery, coercion and even destroying ballots, which were believed to be cast against Congress candidates, for generations in its “greed” for power.
He questioned the silence of the opposition party and the Gandhi family over the BJP’s charge that its former president Sonia Gandhi was registered as a voter three years before she was granted Indian citizenship in 1983. This silence itself raises questions, he added.
“I ask the Congress again as to how it influenced the voters’ list and made her a voter before she became a citizen. It certainly amounted to challenging Indian sovereignty and gave a go-by to the constitutional process,” he said.
Asked about Rahul Gandhi’s press conference in which he made a presentation alleging large-scale irregularities in the voters’ roll of an assembly constituency in Karnataka during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Shekhawat said the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha has only reinforced the need for the SIR.
Such irregularities must be probed, but when it is done, Gandhi sheds crocodile tears and opposes it, the BJP leader said, charging him with double standards.
“He (Gandhi) has spoken in support of the SIR and reinforced the need for it with his statement,” Shekhawat claimed.
He accused the Congress leader of having a history of creating false narratives, be it surgical strikes or the manufacturing of Covid vaccines in India, strengthening anti-India forces at times of national pride and the need for unity. People have repeatedly responded to his false narratives with votes, and he is now at the margins of politics, Shekhawat said.