Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Aug 8: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, alleging large-scale voter fraud in the previous Lok Sabha elections in Mahadevapura and Rajajinagar, staged a protest in Bengaluru on Friday August 8. Speaking at Freedom Park, Gandhi delivered a fiery speech, claiming that while the INDIA alliance’s overall performance remained unaffected, serious irregularities occurred during the recent voter list revision. He alleged that the records from Karnataka serve as proof of the BJP’s ‘big conspiracy’.
Addressing the Congress protest, Rahul Gandhi said, “In the last elections, we protected the Constitution. The Constitution carries thousands of years of history, the voices of Gandhi, Nehru, and Ambedkar, and the footsteps of social movements led by Basavanna and Savitribai Phule. The principle of one person, one vote is the foundation of this book. Voting rights belong to every citizen. But today, various national institutions are being misused to dismantle the Constitution.”
Gandhi pointed out that after the Lok Sabha polls, Maharashtra held elections in which the INDIA alliance emerged victorious, while the BJP won only four constituencies. “Upon investigation, we found that in the Lok Sabha elections, one crore new voters had been added,” he said.
“Our alliance’s performance was consistent, but irregularities took place during the new voter list revision. In Karnataka, our internal survey predicted 15–16 Lok Sabha seats. We fought to win them, but ended up with only nine. Now we know the reason for our losses in the other constituencies,” Gandhi said.
He alleged that the Election Commission rejected their complaints and even issued new orders to delete polling day video recordings within 45 days. “We analysed the Mahadevapura results. In my press conference, I exposed the central government’s fraud,” he added.
“In Mahadevapura, out of 6.5 lac votes, 1.25 lac were stolen — that is one out of every six votes. Voter fraud happened in five ways. Duplicate names in the voter list allowed people to vote in multiple booths — 12,000 votes were cast this way. The list contained voters with fake addresses — 40,000 people without valid addresses still voted. BJP leaders were involved. Some voter IDs lacked photographs. In 32,000 cases, irregularities were found in Form 6,” Gandhi claimed.
He further alleged that 34,000 people voted as ‘new voters’ under suspicious circumstances, bringing the total stolen votes to one lakh. “In Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh, one person casts votes in multiple cities — in Bengaluru, Lucknow, and Varanasi. The Election Commission now asks me for proof, but I have already taken an oath in Parliament,” he said.
“After my press conference, people started questioning the Election Commission’s website. In Bihar, the EC website was shut down. We are demanding electronic and digital data on voting. Once we get it, we will prove exactly where this vote theft happened,” Gandhi stated.