Bengaluru ‘vote chori’ allegation: Submit declaration on claim, give names of electors, EC to Rahul Gandhi

Apart from the State CEOs writing individually to Gandhi, the EC made a more public reference to the matter in a post on X: “If Shri Rahul Gandhi believes what he is saying is true, then he should sign the declaration/ oath as per Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, and submit the same to CEO of Karnataka by today evening itself so that necessary proceedings can be initiated. If Shri Rahul Gandhi does not believe in what he is saying, then he should stop arriving at absurd conclusions and misleading the citizens of India.”

At a press conference in New Delhi, Gandhi alleged that there was “vote chori” of over 1 lakh votes in Mahadevapura Assembly segment, which is a part of the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat, during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress, he said, had deployed a dedicated team of 30-40 people who combed through the electoral roll (made up of 6.5 lakh electors) of this segment to find that over 1 lakh entries were dubious — either because the names were registered in multiple constituencies, or had fake addresses, or had submitted invalid photographs at the time of registration.

The Congress won nine of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka in the 2024 elections.

“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…You are kindly requested to sign and return the enclosed declaration/ oath… along with the name(s) of such elector(s) so that necessary proceedings can be initiated,” Karnataka CEO V Anbukkumar said in his letter to Gandhi.

He said “electoral rolls are prepared in a transparent manner” and had been shared with the Congress representative. “As far as the conduct of elections is concerned, election results can be questioned only by a way of an election petition before Honourable High Court,” he said.

The declaration/ oath states that any false declaration is a punishable offence under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, which provides for imprisonment of up to one year, or fine, or both, for making false declarations. It also attracts Section 227 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, under which giving false evidence in a judicial proceeding is punishable with imprisonment of up to seven years and a fine. If the false evidence is given outside a judicial proceeding, the punishment may extend to three years and a fine.

Meanwhile, a Congress delegation is set to meet the Karnataka CEO on Friday afternoon to submit a memorandum.

Responding to Gandhi’s allegation that two electors from Bengaluru were registered in multiple states, including Uttar Pradesh, the UP CEO said a search showed that the electoral rolls of the constituencies named by Gandhi did not list the names of these two electors.

An EC official said Gandhi’s allegations appeared to justify the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. On the specific allegations of voter fraud, the official said these would be looked into as and when Gandhi submits them in writing to the concerned CEOs.

On the issue of many voters having the same address, another EC official, while not commenting on Gandhi’s specific allegations, said that “notional addresses” are allotted to electors who live in areas that do not have well-defined ward, street, and house numbering — a practice followed in the past as well.

As per instructions issued to CEOs at the time of annual special summary revisions, including on May 24, 2023, the EC gives detailed guidelines on standardisation of addresses. “Where no house no. (number) as given by panchayat/ municipal authorities is available, the notional number will be given in the roll. In such case, it will be invariably indicated that the house no. (number) is notional,” the EC instructions say.