ECI refutes Rahul Gandhi's Vote Chori allegations demands proof from him.
ECI says Rahul making fake narratives and using dirty phrases to directly attack attack integrity of lakhs of election staffs and crores of Indian electors.
Amid relentless attacks by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over alleged voter data fudging, the Election Commission on Thursday said thst 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, reported PTI.
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, reported PTI.
The Election Commission had directed Gandhi to give a written declaration on his claims.
Rahul Ganhi's Claim
The Leader of Opposition on August 7 presented details of Karnataka voters, dropping the promised “atom bomb” of proof, alleging conclusive evidence of large-scale electoral manipulation in India by the Election Commission (EC) in a press confrence.
Based on six months of data analysis, the findings focused on the Mahadevpura Assembly segment in the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha constituency, where Gandhi claimed over 1,00,250 fake votes were fraudulently registered, accusing EC of “criminal fraud” and collusion with the BJP of unfair elections.
The Congress had won nearly all the Assembly segments—six out of seven—except Mahadevapura, where the BJP registered a sweeping victory with a margin of 1,14,046 votes. That one seat played a decisive role in tilting the Lok Sabha result in their favor, Gandhi said.
He enlisted five different ways through which the alleged vote chori (theft) was orchestrated: duplicate voters, fake and invalid addresses, bulk voters at a single address, invalid photos and the misuse of Form 6, which is given to first-time voters for enrolment.
Data provided by Gandhi
Gandhi’s data-backed analysis outlined five distinct categories of alleged voter list manipulation:
11,965 duplicate entries, with some voters listed multiple times across different booths
40,009 voters registered with invalid addresses
10,452 individuals linked to single-room addresses, raising questions of authenticity
4,132 entries with missing or unidentifiable photographs
33,692 so-called “first-time” voters, many aged between 70 and 95, allegedly added through Form 6.
Gandhi alleged that there were cases where a single individual appeared in “four polling booths” and voted multiple times. “There are thousands of such voters who have voted multiple times in different states. A total of 11,965 votes have been stolen like this,” the Leader of Opposition said, while displaying voter lists featuring the photograph of a person he identified as Gurkirat Singh Dang.
According to Gandhi, Dang's name appeared in the electoral rolls of four different polling booths within Mahadevpura.
The Congress leader stated that this malpractice is not an isolated incident but a pattern occurring at a huge scale across the country “in state after state after state.,”
“Not giving machine-readable voter lists and disallowing CCTV footage by changing the law convinced us that the EC colluded with the BJP to steal elections,” he claimed.
