New Delhi [India], August 7 : Even as the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi was in the msdst of a news conference alleging poll irregularities, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of responded in stogly worded letter asking him to sign an affidavit detail his allegations made on the addition and deletion of electors.
"It is understood that during a Press Conference held today, you had mentioned about the inclusion of ineligible electors and exclusion of eligible electors in the Electoral Rolls cited at Para 3. You are kindly requested to sign and return the enclosed Declaration/Oath under Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, along with the name(s) of such elector(s) so that necessary proceedings can be initiated..." the letter stated.
In his news conference Rahul Gandhi alleged that the elections were "choreographed." Presenting the party's research on voting in the Mahadevpura Assembly in Karnataka, Gandhi alleged of "vote chori" (vote theft) of 1,00, 250 votes.
Rahul Gandhi said that Congress won other seats while Mahadevapura was swept by the BJP.
"Elections are choreographed... Our internal polling told us we would win 16 seats in Karnataka; we won nine. We then focused on seven unexpected losses. We chose one Lok Sabha, and our team decided we could only focus on one Vidhan Sabha (seat). So we focused on Mahadevapur. Here is the broad math. All data is 2024 data from the Election Commission. Total votes polled in the Lok Sabha were 6.26 lakhs. The BJP won with 6,58,915, securing a margin of 32,707. But then we look at Mahadevapura, where Congress polls 1,15,586 and BJP polls 2,29,632. Congress wins all Vidhan Sabhas but this one. This seat wins them the election."
"We found 1,00,250 votes stolen. Stolen in five different ways. Duplicate voters, fake and invalid addresses, and bulk voters in a single address, on a building with 50-60 people living. But when we go there, no record of those people living there. One family living in that house," Rahul Gandhi alleged.
"Invalid photos...Then the misuse of Form 6. Form 6 allows new people to become voters," he added. Rahul Gandhi said that anti-incumbency hit every party but the BJP, which was seen in the Haryana and Madhya Pradesh polls. He said, "Anti-incumbency hits every single party in every democracy, but for some reason, the BJP is the only party that does not suffer from anti-incumbency in a democracy. Exit polls and opinion polls say one thing, but you saw in the Haryana and MP elections, and suddenly the results go in another direction with a massive swing. This also included our internal polling, which is sophisticated.
"Flagging polling in multiple phases, he added, "There was a time in India with no EVMs; people voted on one day. Now, UP has a different voting day, and Bihar has some other day. Voting goes on for a month. This made us suspicious. Suddenly, the dates of the Haryana and Karnataka elections were changed."