SRINAGAR: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has alleged large-scale “vote theft” during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, directly accusing the Election Commission (EC) of colluding with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to manipulate results in critical constituencies, The Indian Express reported.
At a press briefing, Gandhi presented what he called compelling evidence of manipulation in Bangalore Central’s Mahadevapura Assembly segment, claiming over 100,000 votes were illicitly tampered with. According to Congress’s internal data analysis, the alleged “vote theft” involved five main techniques- Duplicate voter entries, Fraudulent and invalid addresses, Bulk registration of voters at singular addresses, Invalid photographs on voter rolls and Misuse of Form 6 applications for new enrollments.
As per a report in The Times of India, Gandhi cited specific figures, including 11,965 duplicate votes, 40,009 with fake addresses, 10,452 bulk registrations, and 33,692 suspect Form 6 entries. “We have documented instances of individuals whose names appear across multiple booths, sometimes even in separate states, with only minor variations in details,” Gandhi said.
Extending his accusations beyond Karnataka, the Congress leader pointed to Maharashtra—alleging a suspicious spike in voting after 5:30pm and the anomalous addition of millions of voters between recent elections. He called the alleged manipulations “a crime against the Constitution,” warning of future consequences for the EC if the opposition comes to power, NDTV reported.
A report in India Today read that the Election Commission, joined by BJP leaders and state electoral officers, swiftly rebutted the claims. The EC challenged Gandhi to submit a formal, signed complaint with detailed evidence and pointed out that only an election petition in the High Court could legally contest results. Karnataka and Maharashtra’s Chief Electoral Officers have both demanded Gandhi substantiate his claims or withdraw them, dismissing the allegations as “baseless” and “fabricated.”
Gandhi and his party have intensified their criticism of the electoral process, alleging deliberate lack of transparency by the EC, destruction of potential evidence such as CCTV footage, and refusal to release machine-readable voter data.
