Rahul Gandhi has evidence for vote theft allegations in Karnataka: Siddaramaiah

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on 31 July, Thursday, said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has got evidence for his allegation regarding the modus operandi for "votes theft" during the Lok Sabha polls in his state last year.

Amid the raging row over the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, Gandhi on 23 July had alleged that elections are being "stolen" in the country and claimed his party has figured out the modus operandi of the "votes theft" by studying a Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka.

Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, is scheduled to participate in a protest in Bengaluru on 5 August and submit a representation to the Election Commission officials here in this connection.

"Rahul Gandhi has got evidence. He is coming here to protest and to meet the Election Commission officials in Karnataka," the CM said in response to a question about the top Congress leader having evidence or documents to back his claims.

Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, Siddaramaiah said the nature of the protest meet and the venue will be decided soon.

Deputy chief minister D.K. Shivakumar, who is also the state Congress president, had said the venue for the protest and nature of the event — whether a rally or protest march, say — will be decided after a meeting on 31 July, Thursday, citing "technical issues" and court directives around holding such events in the city.

Last week, Gandhi had said he would place before the people and the Election Commission in black-and-white how the "theft of votes" is being done.

"In Karnataka, we have found out bhayankar chori (massive theft). I will show it in black-and-white to you and the Election Commission. I will show in black and white how the chori is done and from where. We have it in black and white in Karnataka," the former Congress president had said.

"They know that we have understood their game. We picked one constituency and did a deep dive. Problem is that they give a voters' list on paper and the paper list cannot be analysed. We took the full voters' list of one constituency. We put it in digital format. It took six months but we have uncovered their whole system, how they do it, who votes and from where new voters are brought," he said.

Following Gandhi's statement, Siddaramaiah too had earlier alleged that the Congress party's setback in the Lok Sabha polls in the state was due to "illegal manipulation" of the electoral process by the BJP through its 'misuse' of the EC, and that discussions were on with his party high command to decide the necessary course of action.

He claimed that in several constituencies across the state, Congress workers reported sudden and suspicious additions of new voters, while names of long-time voters were removed without justification.