Mallikarjun Kharge accuses Election Commission of having “stonewalled crucial information”

Mallikarjun Kharge

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday accused the Election Commission of having "stonewalled crucial information" which he claimed was effectively shielding those behind alleged "vote chori".

Kharge shared on X a media report which claimed that the case related to an attempt to remove electors by forging Form 7, ahead of the Karnataka Assembly election in 2023 has gone cold since the ECI is yet to share crucial data needed to nab the accused.

There was no immediate response from the Election Commission on the charges but the poll body has in the past dismissed all such claims by the Congress as baseless. Is the Election Commission of India (ECI) now BJP's back-office for "vote chori", Kharge asked.

"Understand the chronology. Ahead of the May 2023 Karnataka elections, Congress had exposed massive deletion of voters: in Aland Constituency. Thousands of voters were stripped of their rights through a very sophisticated operation of forging Form 7 applications," he alleged.

"In February 2023, a case was filed. The probe revealed 5994 forged applications - clear evidence of a massive attempt at voter fraud. The Congress government then ordered a CID probe to catch the culprits," added Kharge.

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