Congress leader asks Election Commission to investigate ‘vote theft’ matter
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. PIC/PTI
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said the slogan ‘vote chor, gaddi chhod’ (vote thief, vacate your seat of power) has proved across the country and the party will establish it in “more dramatic ways”. Gandhi is in Uttar Pradesh for a two-day visit to his parliamentary constituency, Raebareli. He reached Lucknow’s Chowdhury Charan Singh airport earlier in the day where he was received by Congress state president Ajai Rai and other senior leaders.
Talking to reporters before entering an event venue, Gandhi said, “The main slogan is ‘vote chor, gaddi chhod’ and that is being proved across the country. We will prove it again and again in more and more dramatic ways.” Gandhi, speaking at a programme with party workers from Harchandpur Vidhan Sabha in Dedauli, referred to alleged instances of vote theft in Maharashtra and Karnataka. The Congress leader said that there was “black and white” evidence of vote theft in the Maharashtra and Karnataka assembly elections, which were held after the Lok Sabha polls.
According to the source, Gandhi said there was no change in the votes polled for the Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena, but the BJP’s tally saw a “huge jump”, with every newly added voter going in its favour. The Congress MP said he had asked the Election Commission to investigate the matter and explain how one crore new voters appeared in four months. “The Commission refused, saying they will not give us the list, nor provide any video,” the source said, quoting the Congress leader.
Gandhi further alleged that similar irregularities surfaced in Karnataka after elections. Congress workers scrutinised voters in one assembly segment of Bengaluru Central and found two lakh fake voters which led to the BJP’s victory there. “Bengaluru Central has seven assembly constituencies. Our workers spent four months investigating just one, and that is what they found,” Gandhi said in the meeting.
Accusing the BJP of stealing votes, he alleged that such incidents were not limited to Bengaluru or Maharashtra. “This has happened in Uttar Pradesh, in Haryana, in Madhya Pradesh, and in Gujarat it has happened on a massive scale. Gradually, we are presenting all the evidence before you,” Gandhi said, according to the source. Referring to his recent election tour in Bihar, Gandhi also claimed that similar irregularities were noticed there as well.
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