Rahul Gandhi attacks poll panel for asking for affidavit under oath

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday, 8 August, reiterated his vote theft allegations and attacked the Election Commission for demanding an affidavit under oath from him to support his claims.

Addressing the 'Vote Adhikar Rally' in Bengaluru, Rahul Gandhi alleged that the Election Commission and BJP colluded to steal the Lok Sabha election from people.

"The EC asks me to file an affidavit and give information under oath. I have taken oath inside the Parliament holding the Constitution," he said. Today when the people are questioning the Election Commission based on data he released, the EC has shut its website, he alleged.

The EC websites in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar have been shut down because they knew that if people started questioning based on data, then their entire structure would collapse, Rahul Gandhi alleged.

The top leader wanted his party-run government in Karnataka to investigate and act against the "crime of stealing election."

Further, the former Congress president said: "In the (2024) Lok Sabha election, our alliance wins in Maharashtra. But after 4 months, the BJP wins the Maharashtra assembly election. It was a surprising election result. When we tried to find out, we learnt that 1 crore new voters cast their votes; 1 crore new voters who had never voted in the LS polls voted in the assembly election in Maharashtra."

The Congress leader claimed that such new votes went to the BJP, which pointed to "wrongdoings." Wherever such new voters cast their votes, the BJP won.

"The votes of our alliance did not reduce and we got exactly the same number of votes we had in the Lok Sabha election. The new voters went to the BJP in the assembly election," he added.

Rahul Gandhi claimed that in Karnataka, Congress surveys showed them winning 15 to 16 seats in the Lok Sabha election. "Our polling showed that we were ahead in 16 seats but we won nine seats. Then we started questioning. Did we really lose elections? We were demanding the EC a soft copy voter list but they were rejecting it. When we demanded video, they rejected it and changed the law. They said that they should destroy the video after 45 days," Rahul Gandhi said.

Holding a copy of the Constitution, he said it has the ideology of thousands of years of history.

"It has Mahatma Gandhi, Ambedkar, Nehru and Sardar Patel’s voice resonates along with the sayings of Basavanna, Narayana Guru and Jyotiba Phule. Its foundation is one man one vote.” Every Indian citizen has the right of one vote each.

"In the last election, Modi and its leaders made an assault on the Constitution. Indian institutions were destroyed," he alleged.