Congress MP and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, launched a scathing attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI), accusing it of colluding with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to “steal elections” across the country. During a press conference, Gandhi claimed that fake voters were being added to electoral rolls, presenting Karnataka’s voter lists as evidence to support his allegations.
Gandhi specifically highlighted the Mahadevapura assembly segment in Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency, alleging a “massive theft” of votes. He claimed that out of 6.5 lakh votes in the segment, over 1 lakh votes were manipulated.
According to Congress’s internal research, Mahadevapura had over 1 lakh duplicate voters, 40,009 voters with fake or invalid addresses, 10,452 bulk voters registered at single addresses, and 4,132 voters with invalid photos. Additionally, Gandhi alleged that 33,692 voters misused Form 6, meant for new or first-time voters.
Karnataka Lok Sabha Polls 2024
The 2024 Lok Sabha election in Bangalore Central witnessed a tight contest. Congress candidate Mansoor Ali Khan led for most of the counting, but BJP’s PC Mohan secured a narrow victory with a margin of 32,707 votes. Congress polled 6,26,208 votes, while BJP secured 6,58,915. Gandhi pointed out that Congress won six out of seven segments but lost Mahadevapura by 1,14,000 votes, alleging a “vote theft” of 1,00,250 votes.
Response from Election Commission
In response, ECI sources sharply rebuked Gandhi, stating, “Either provide signed evidence or stop misleading the people of India and leveling baseless allegations against the poll body.”
Demand for Electronic Voter Data
Gandhi raised concerns about the ECI’s refusal to provide voter lists in electronic format, claiming it would expose fraud “within 30 seconds.” He said, “This is seven feet of paper. Checking for duplicate voters or repeated names requires comparing each page manually, which is tedious.” He further alleged that the ECI deliberately provides “non-machine-readable” voter lists to hinder scrutiny, adding that analyzing Mahadevapura’s data took Congress six months, but electronic data would have made it a 30-second task.
Congress Plans Protest
The allegations come ahead of a major Congress protest march in Karnataka against the ECI over alleged voter fraud, led by Gandhi. The Karnataka State Election Commission challenged Gandhi to submit a signed affidavit supporting his claims and questioned why Congress had not formally lodged a complaint.
Context of 2024 Elections
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress-led INDIA bloc restricted the BJP to 240 seats, forcing it to rely on allies to form the government. Congress won 99 seats, with the INDIA bloc securing 235. However, Congress faced defeats in subsequent assembly elections in Haryana, Delhi, and Maharashtra.
Gandhi questioned why the BJP appears immune to anti-incumbency, a phenomenon that affects every other party in democratic systems. He also raised doubts about exit polls, which inaccurately predicted Congress’s victory in Haryana and gave an edge to the Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra, only for results to swing dramatically in the opposite direction.
Abdul Rahman
August 9, 2025Find very informative.