Rahul Gandhi’s claims of ‘vote theft’ in the elections have gained further traction, with Shashi Tharoor expressing his support. Gandhi has labeled these actions as unconstitutional, and the matter is escalating. Mallikarjun Kharge has also voiced his support, emphasizing the need to defend democracy and the constitution. The BJP has dismissed these claims as unfounded. Shashi Tharoor, a former Union Minister known for occasionally diverging from party positions, has urged the Election Commission to take action.
Tharoor, a senior Congress leader, has recently shown a tendency to express views that differ from the party’s official stance. However, he aligned himself with Rahul Gandhi’s concerns regarding the alleged manipulation of votes, considering it a serious matter. On the social media platform X, he posted, “These are serious questions which must be seriously addressed in the interests of all parties & all voters. Our democracy is too precious to allow its credibility to be destroyed by incompetence, carelessness or worse, deliberate tampering.” He called for immediate action from the Election Commission, as well as regular updates to the public.
Rahul Gandhi, the former Congress president, presented data from a Karnataka assembly constituency as evidence of a pattern of ‘vote theft’ designed to benefit the BJP. He alleges that this was conducted in collaboration with the Election Commission and is a violation of the constitution.
Gandhi cited data from the Mahadevapura assembly constituency in Karnataka, highlighting alleged irregularities. He mentioned that gathering evidence of these irregularities took six months and stated that the Election Commission’s failure to provide machine-readable voter list data hindered the investigation.
Focusing on Mahadevapura, Gandhi stated that his team’s analysis revealed a pattern of manipulation. He claimed that the BJP trailed in six out of the seven assembly constituencies of the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha seat, but secured a significant victory in Mahadevapura.
The Congress leader alleged that 1,00,250 votes were stolen in the Mahadevapura assembly constituency, where the BJP won by a margin of 32,707 votes. He outlined various irregularities, including the creation of duplicate voters, the use of fake addresses, multiple registrations at the same address, the inclusion of voters with fake photos, and the improper use of Form-6 to add new voters. He provided the example of a voter named Aditya Srivastava, who was listed in multiple locations.
