Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has launched a scathing attack on the Election Commission of India (EC), accusing it of colluding with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to “destroy” the electoral system through what he termed “massive vote chori” (vote theft).
Speaking at a press conference in Delhi, Gandhi presented detailed polling data and voter roll analysis, alleging widespread irregularities in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He cited the Bangalore Central constituency as a prime example, where Congress candidate Mansoor Ali Khan lost to BJP’s PC Mohan by a narrow margin of 32,707 votes—just 2.58% of the total votes cast.
Gandhi claimed that while Congress won six out of seven assembly segments in the constituency, it suffered a massive defeat in Mahadevapura, where BJP gained over 1.14 lakh votes. He alleged that 1,00,250 votes were “stolen” in Mahadevapura through duplicate voter entries, fake addresses, bulk registrations, and misuse of Form 6 for new enrollments.
The Congress leader presented voter rolls showing alleged anomalies, including multiple registrations of individuals across different polling booths and states such as Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. He said his party had verified these discrepancies by physically inspecting listed addresses, some of which turned out to be breweries and commercial establishments.
Gandhi extended his allegations beyond Karnataka, pointing to Maharashtra and Haryana, where he claimed unexplained surges in voter numbers between Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections. He argued that if BJP had lost just 25 more seats in the 2024 polls, it would not have secured a majority on its own.
The Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer responded by sending Gandhi a formal letter requesting evidence under oath, warning that submitting false information could invite legal consequences under Section 227 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023.
As of now, the BJP has not issued an official response to the allegations. The Election Commission has maintained that the election petition window for challenging the 2024 results has closed, but it has invited Gandhi to submit verified data for further review.
