ECI can take my public remarks as oath: Rahul Gandhi

Congress MP and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Thursday cited an analysis of data for a Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka from the 2024 elections to make explosive claims of "huge criminal fraud" in polls perpetrated by the BJP through the Election Commission of India (ECI), and asserted that this was a "crime" against the Constitution.

Addressing a press conference at the Congress' Indira Bhawan headquarters in Delhi, Gandhi also hit back at the ECI for demanding a signed declaration from him on his claims and said he had made the remarks publicly and they could "take it as an oath".

"I am a politician, what I say to the people is my word. I am saying it to the people publicly, take it as an oath. Interestingly, they haven't denied the information. They haven't said the voter lists (shown by me) are wrong, they are saying Rahul Gandhi should say it under oath... they know the truth. We know you (ECI) have done this across the country," the former Congress president said.

The Lok Sabha LoP also said the judiciary needs to get involved in this because the democracy that "we love so much does not exist".

Gandhi said what his party had collected was "criminal evidence" and alleged that the Election Commission was busy destroying such proof across the country.

"Our internal polls indicated that we were expected to win 16 seats in Karnataka (in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections). However, we won nine. We then focused on the seven unexpected losses and chose the Mahadevapura Vidhan Sabha constituency. All the data we have here is from the 2024 elections, sourced from the Election Commission," he asserted.

Gandhi cited that in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP secured 6,58,915 votes in the Bangalore Central seat, winning by a margin of 32,707. "In the Mahadevapura assembly segment, the Congress received 1,15,586 votes, whereas the BJP garnered 2,29,632 votes.

Gandhi backed his claims of discrepancies with data displayed on the giant screen, citing examples of fake voters, duplicate voters and single address voters.

"This is EC data, and the EC is saying it is getting free and fair polls done. In one assembly segment, one lakh fake voters are there, we are telling the people of the country, this is your future. The whole system is being stolen. This evidence is 100 per cent in black and white," the Congress leader asserted.

"We see there is a pattern, we are absolutely convinced that this crime is being done on a huge scale across the country in state after state after state. CCTV footage and voter list are evidence in crime and the Election Commission is trying to destroy it," he alleged.

"I want the nation to know that there is a huge criminal fraud being perpetrated on this country. It is being done by the Election Commission and the party in power and we have given you undoubtable proof," he said.

"If the Election Commission now does not give us electronic voter data of the last 10-15 years, and if it does not share the CCTV footage, they are partaking in the crime," he said.

In a warning to those involved in perpetrating "electoral fraud", Gandhi repeated his claim, made a few days ago outside Parliament, that there will be consequences for every single polling officer who is doing this.

"It doesn't matter how senior or junior you are. One day, the Opposition is going to come to power and then you see what we do to you; because you are attacking the foundation of what our forefathers who fought for India's freedom built and we are not going to allow you to do that, no matter who you are," he said.

Gandhi said his message to the ECI is that they are not in the business of destroying Indian democracy but in the business of protecting it.

"This is a crime that is being committed against the Indian Constitution, against the Indian flag. This is nothing less than that," he said, alleging poll rigging in various parts of the country.

"The Election Commission is not giving us data because they are afraid that what we did in Mahadevapura, we will do in the remaining Lok Sabha seats, and then the truth of the country's democracy will come out," he said.

Edited PTI copy