BJP's reaction to Rahul Gandhi's comments on EC fuels 'mistrust': Sharad Pawar

Sharad Pawar. File Pic

NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday claimed that BJP leaders routinely respond whenever Congress MP Rahul Gandhi questions the Election Commission's functioning, fuelling "mistrust" in the poll panel, reported news agency PTI.

Responding to a question on Rahul Gandhi's criticism of the Election Commission of India over alleged "vote chori", Pawar said Gandhi and other Opposition leaders have raised key issues about the ECI's functioning, reported PTI.

"When Gandhi, the leader of opposition (in the Lok Sabha), raised the issue in Parliament, the institution concerned should have taken note of it. But what is happening is that when Gandhi raises questions and criticises the ECI, the ECI does not answer - it is the BJP and its leaders who respond," he told reporters.

Instead of the Election Commission, the chief minister and other leaders are responding to such issues, the former Union minister noted.

"By doing this, they are actually contributing to the mistrust about the ECI, which is not good," he added.

Sharpening his attack on the issue of "vote chori" (vote theft), Gandhi last week accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of protecting those who destroyed democracy, reported PTI.

To buttress his allegation, the leader of the opposition cited data from two assembly constituencies in Karnataka and Maharashtra, where he claimed voters were deleted/added in a fraudulent manner.

The lecEtion Commission has dubbed the allegations as incorrect and baseless, and said, "No deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as misconceived by Gandhi."

This comes after Rahul Gandhi held a press conference in Delhi on September 18 and accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of "protecting vote chors". He further alleged that the CEC is fully aware of how fraud is happening in deleting and adding fake voters in the voter list. He stated that he has "10 per cent proof" that the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is "protecting vote chors (vote thieves)."

The Congress leader claimed that a "certain group of people" are systematically cutting the votes of minority groups who specifically vote for the Congress.

Gandhi also claimed that there was an attempt to delete more than 6,000 voters' names from the Aland constituency in Karnataka.

"In Aland, Karnataka, 6018 votes, somebody tried to delete these votes. We don't know the total number of votes deleted in the 2023 elections, but somebody got caught. It was caught, by most crimes, by coincidence. What happened was that the Booth Level officer noticed that her uncle's vote had been deleted," the Congress MP said.

(With inputs from PTI)