A day after alleging large-scale voter fraud, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday, August 8, posed five questions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) during a protest organised by the Karnataka Congress at Freedom Park in Bengaluru.
“Instead of threatening us, answer these five questions,” Gandhi said, accusing the ECI of acting like an “agent of the BJP.”
His questions included: why the Commission refused to share voter rolls in a machine-readable format, why it destroyed polling booth video footage, why it allowed “massive fraud” in voter lists, and why it was intimidating the Opposition rather than responding to concerns.
Holding up a copy of the Constitution, Rahul Gandhi said, “During the previous election, we protected the Constitution and the elections… The foundational idea of the Constitution is that of one man, one vote,” he said, adding that this idea was now being questioned.
Recalling that the Congress party won the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra but lost the Assembly elections, he said, “It was surprising. One crore voters, who had not voted in the election just (some) months ago, had magically turned up to vote during the Assembly elections (in November 2024).”
He said that the INDIA bloc’s vote share did not decrease between the Parliamentary and Assembly elections in Maharashtra. “That day, we thought something was fishy.”
He claimed that Congress’ internal surveys before the Lok Sabha elections last year indicated that the party would win 14-16 seats. He also alleged that the Election Commission refused to give them copies of the digital voters’ rolls. “When we asked for video footage, they refused to give it, and then changed the law: the video must be destroyed within 45 days.”
This prompted the Congress party to start its own investigation in Mahadevapura which is part of Bangalore Central Parliamentary constituency, he said. He claimed the party found five types of “theft”.
He said that the party found 11,965 duplicate voters (people who had voted multiple times and in different states), 40,000 voters whose addresses were invalid, or marked “0” or “-”; 4,132 people who had no photo or the photo was so small that the person’s face was simply not visible.
Rahul Gandhi also alleged that the party found 10,452 voters who were found to be living in groups of about 80 people or 100 people with the address of a tiny room, which was often owned by or linked to a BJP leader. He also claimed that 34,000 people whose ages were 80-90 years were found to be first time voters.
“The BJP and the ECI have stolen one lakh votes… If the election commission gives us the data, we will prove that Prime Minister Narendra Modi stole the election,” Rahul Gandhi alleged.
Speaking at the event, AICC national president Mallikarjun Kharge accused Modi of having “no moral right” to remain in office, claiming the Lok Sabha election was stolen. He said the party would conduct similar voter roll investigations in other states.
“I won 12 elections. The only election I lost was in 2019,” he said, alleging that his defeat too raised suspicion.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao said that he had data from his own constituency Chickpet where he claimed that there were irregularities with regard to around 7,000 voters. He claimed that in some cases, they had found 100-150 people registered to a small shop. He said he had written to the Election Commission which took no action on his complaint.
“The names of many people are being left out. Attempts are being made to destroy our democracy,” Dinesh Gundu Rao said.
When Housing Minister BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan walked up to the podium, cheers went up from a section of the crowd. Taking the mic, he led the crowd in raising a slogan: “Jai Bheem”—which Ambedkarites often use.
After a few times of the crowd repeating “Jai Bheem” after him, Zameer Ahmed recalled the 2024 Parliamentary election. “Before the 2024 election, HN Ananth Kumar said that they would change the Constitution. Without the Constitution, you would not be here, I would not be minister… So say Jai Bheem,” he said, and led the crowd in raising the slogan a few more times.
Earlier on August 7, Gandhi had claimed the Mahadevapura parliamentary election was “stolen,” alleging that Congress candidate Mansoor Ali Khan would have defeated BJP’s PC Mohan in Bangalore Central by over 82,000 votes without fraudulent entries.