General
Synopsis
Karnataka’s CEO has asked AICC leader Rahul Gandhi to provide a signed declaration detailing alleged voter roll discrepancies in Bangalore, following Gandhi’s accusations of election rigging and voter list manipulation. The CEO’s letter highlighted that the Congress party did not raise objections during the electoral roll revision process.
Karnataka’s chief electoral officer (CEO) on Thursday asked AICC leader Rahul Gandhi to furnish a signed declaration with the names of eligible voters he believes are deleted and ineligible voters added in the electoral rolls.
The CEO’s action came soon after Gandhi, who is also the Opposition leader in the Lok Sabha, alleged large scale rigging in elections in the Bangalore Lok Sabha seat, last year, in which the Congress lost. He accused the election commission of India (ECI) of engineering voter list manipulation at the behest of the BJP.
The Karnataka CEO, in his letter, said the authorities had shared the drafted electoral rolls of special summary revision (SSR) with the Congress party in November 2024 and shared the final rolls in January 2025. The Congress did not file any objections to these.
The CEO highlighted in his letter that as far as the conduct of elections were concerned, one could question the results only by an election petition before the high court.
The CEO’s letter mentioned Gandhi’s press conference in Delhi earlier in the day, targeting the ECI, and alleging that it included ineligible voters and excluded eligible voters in the electoral rolls.
The CEO, along with his letter, sent a written declaration to the AICC leader and asked him to sign and return it along with specific information on missing names. Gandhi was told to mention names of voters included/excluded, part number of the electoral roll and serial number in the electoral roll. The declaration says the signatory (Gandhi) is aware that making a false declaration or giving false evidence is punishable offences under both Representation of People’s Act, 1950 and Bhartiya Nyaya Samhita, 2023.
Earlier, at the press conference in Delhi, Gandhi, who is also the leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, alleged that about 65,000 votes were cast in just 10 minutes in Bangalore Central constituency during the LS polls, last year. In Mahadevapura assembly segment of Bangalore Central there were 1,00,250 votes that were fake/duplicate/fraudulent/bulk votes/votes with invalid photos/votes.