New Delhi [India], August 8 : Congress Lok Sabha MP Karti Chidambaram on Friday called out the Election Commission (EC) over its conduct amid allegations of "vote theft" while comparing the working of the constitutional body from the time when TN Seshan was its Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).
"It is such a bad fall from the days when the EC was headed by legendary Civil Servants like TN Seshan," Chidambaram told ANI.
He said that the Election Commission, which is entrusted with the function of holding free and fair elections, was behaving in a "childish" manner.
"It is sad in our democracy that the body that is entrusted with the function of running free and fair elections is behaving in this manner. This is so childish and so petty. Will the EC next say that they will file a defamation case against LoP?" Chidambaram said.
Countering Rahul Gandhi's claim of voter list manipulation, sources in the ECI pointed out on Friday that the Congress-led Karnataka government itself relies on electoral rolls for its crucial caste census policy.
The ECI sources told ANI that yesterday, the Karnataka government decided to use the electoral roll as a base for conducting a caste survey.
"At the same time, LoP (Rahul Gandhi) was dropping the Atom Bomb on Electoral Rolls, the Congress government, at the same time, vouching for the authenticity of the electoral rolls by basing their most important policy of caste census on the electoral rolls," ECI sources said.
"The reason is that in the past, he (Rahul Gandhi) has never sent any self-signed letter by himself. Whatever reply we give is to other entities, and every time, he disowns it. For example, he raised the Maharashtra issue on December 24. Some Advocate writes to us from AICC. Our reply dated 24 Dec 24 is on our website. But Rahul Gandhi says that we have never replied," ECI sources said.
Gandhi earlier said that 1,00,250 "fake votes" were created in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment in the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka to ensure a win for the BJP.
Taking the reporters through a detailed presentation of the 'fraud' at the Congress headquarters in Delhi, the LoP alleged that "collusion" had happened between the Election Commission of India and the BJP, which resulted in Prime Minister Narendra Modi securing his third term.
He alleged that the elections are "choreographed".
Presenting Congress' research on voting in the Mahadevapura Assembly in Karnataka, Gandhi alleged "vote chori" (vote theft) of 1,00,250 votes.
Addressing a press conference, Rahul Gandhi said that Congress won other seats while the BJP swept Mahadevapura.