Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) [India], September 20 : Reacting to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's fresh allegations of vote theft, BJD Vice President Prasanna Acharya said that the Election Commission should respond to the allegations properly without retaliating in a political manner.
Speaking to ANI, the BJD leader stated that it is the duty and responsibility of the Election Commission to clarify the issue; otherwise, the entire country will be in doubt and suspicion.
Acharya said, "Rahul Gandhi is raising very serious issues that cannot be overlooked. It is a serious allegation against the Election Commission. The EC should reply to this allegation. Otherwise, the entire country will be in doubt and suspicion. The EC, without retaliating in a political manner, should give a proper answer to the allegations..."
"We have also filed a petition because we have doubts about the free and fair conduct of the election and the preparation of the voter list. It is the duty and responsibility of the EC to clarify it to the utmost satisfaction of the voters of this country. Without doing that, if the Election Commission behaves and answers like a political party, then that is unfortunate..." he added.
Earlier today, Shiv Sena UBT MP Sanjay Raut reiterated Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi's "vote theft" allegations, stating that 90 per cent of the Mahayuti MLAs in Maharashtra have won because of "vote chori".
Raut's reactions came two days after Rahul Gandhi's recent claims, alleging "vote theft" of approximately 6000 votes from Karnataka's Aland assembly constituency.
This comes after Rahul Gandhi held a press conference in Delhi on September 18 and accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of "protecting vote chors". He further alleged that the CEC is fully aware of how fraud is happening in deleting and adding fake voters in the voter list. He stated that he has "10 per cent proof" that the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is "protecting vote chors (vote thieves)."
Although the Congress leader clarified that the so-called 'Hydrogen Bomb' was still expected, he claimed that a "certain group of people" are systematically cutting the votes of minority groups who specifically vote for the Congress.
Gandhi also claimed that there was an attempt to delete more than 6,000 voters' names from the Aland constituency in Karnataka.
"In Aland, Karnataka, 6018 votes, somebody tried to delete these votes. We don't know the total number of votes deleted in the 2023 elections, but somebody got caught. It was caught, by most crimes, by coincidence. What happened was that the Booth Level officer noticed that her uncle's vote had been deleted," the Congress MP said.