Rahul Gandhi Shares “Karnataka Votes Stolen Proof”.......

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi today claimed that an investigation found massive voter fraud in a Karnataka Assembly segment during the 2024 Lok Sabha election and accused the Election Commission of colluding with the ruling BJP to steal elections. The allegations drew a sharp response as the election body dared Mr Gandhi to take an oath and submit a declaration that he had found irregularities in the voter list or withdraw his "fabricated evidence". The BJP called the allegations "baseless" and said Gandhi has "lost his cool". 

The reversal of the INDIA bloc's poll fortunes in the Maharashtra Assembly election just months after their strong show in the general election showed "something was not right", Gandhi said. The INDIA bloc, which won 30 out of 48 Maharashtra seats in the Lok Sabha polls last year, could not even cross the 50 mark in the state polls just five months later.  

"BJP does not suffer from anti-incumbency. Opinion polls suggested something, but the results were the opposite. Examples are Haryana, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. An ambience was created to explain the factors that led to the win: Ladli Behna, Pulwama, (Operation) Sindoor, narrative creation," Gandhi said.

He said the Election Commission's "choreographed schedule" for Assembly polls deepened the suspicion. "In Maharashtra, more voters were added in five months than in five years. In the Lok Sabha (election), our alliance wins. We face a drubbing in the Assembly polls. One crore new voters cast their votes in the Assembly polls. The Election Commission cites brisk voting at 5.30 pm. Our booth agents say no such brisk voting happened. Maharashtra was the first time we saw something was wrong," he said. Mr Gandhi alleged that the Election Commission, instead of answering the Opposition's questions, evaded replies. He said the poll body refused to provide digital voter rolls for them to check.

The Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha said their investigation focused on the Mahadevapura Assembly seat in Karnataka. "Our internal polling told us we would win 16 (Lok Sabha) seats in Karnataka, we won nine. We then focused on seven unexpected losses. We chose one Lok Sabha, and our team decided we could only focus on one Vidhan Sabha (seat). So we focused on Mahadevapura.

"Total votes polled in the (Bangalore Central) Lok Sabha were 6.26 lakh. The BJP won with 6,58,915, securing a margin of 32,707. Then, we looked at Mahadevapura, where Congress got 1,15,586 votes and BJP 2,29,632. Congress won all Vidhan Sabhas, but this one. This seat won them the election. We found 1,00,250 stolen votes. Stolen in five different ways: duplicate voters, fake and invalid addresses, bulk voters at a single address. But when we go there, no record of those people living there. One family living in that house," Mr Gandhi alleged.

The presentation shared by Mr Gandhi listed these alleged irregularities:

• Same voter appears multiple times in voter rolls
• Same voter in multiple states
• Either the address doesn't exist, or it's mentioned as "0"
• Bulk voters at a single address
• Indistinguishable or microsized photo on voter IDs
• Misuse of Form 6 meant for first-time voters

Targeting the Election Commission, Gandhi said, "They're not in the business of protecting democracy anymore, they're helping dismantle it. The umpire is on the other team. The judiciary needs to get involved in this because the democracy that we love so much does not exist."