Rahul alleges 1 lakh votes stolen; EC seeks proof

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused the Election Commission of India of enabling large-scale "vote theft" in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, citing alleged manipulation in Karnataka's Mahadevapura Assembly segment under the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha seat.

- ANAND SINGH

Addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters in Indira Bhawan, Gandhi claimed over 1,00,000 fraudulent votes were added in Mahadevapura, contributing significantly to the BJP's overall victory in the Bengaluru Central constituency. He said this discovery followed months of analysis by a dedicated team formed by the party to investigate unusual electoral trends in states like Maharashtra, Haryana and Karnataka.

"The foundation of our democracy rests on the principle of one person, one vote. But that principle is now under threat," Gandhi said. He raised concerns about fake names in the voter rolls, duplicate entries, and what he described as a "choreographed" election schedule that consistently benefits the BJP. He also pointed to the refusal of the Election Commission to provide machine-readable versions of the voter list, saying the data was only made available in unscannable formats that obstruct analysis.