In a sharp escalation of its attack on the integrity of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday presented what he called “concrete proof” of systematic electoral fraud in several key constituencies. At a press conference in New Delhi, Gandhi unveiled a detailed dossier titled “Vote Chori”, based on months-long investigation by the Congress party, alleging mass manipulation of voter rolls and procedural violations, particularly in Karnataka and Maharashtra. The congress research focussed on 2024 Lok Sabha results relying on data thats available on Election Commission of India (ECI) website. They narrowed down to one assembly segment of Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency - Mahadevapura, where BJP won by over 1,14,046 votes. The lead BJP got at Mahadevapura assembly segment helped BJP’s PC Mohan defeat Congress candidate Mansoor Ali Khan by 32,707 in the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat. According to Rahul Gandhi, when the party excluded votes from just this one assembly segment - Mahadevapura, he claimed, the Congress would have had a lead of nearly 82,000 votes.

The 80-page presentation, backed by booth-level data, screenshots from the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) website, and field verifications, outlines five key categories of electoral irregularities: duplicate voters, fake or unverifiable addresses, bulk voter registrations at single addresses, invalid or micro-sized voter photographs, and alleged misuse of Form 6, which is meant for first-time voters. The party’s internal audit of Mahadevapura allegedly uncovered over 1 lakh problematic entries in the voter rolls, broken down as follows:

* 11,965 duplicate voters, with identical names or voter IDs.
* 40,009 voters with fake or unverifiable addresses - some listed only as “0” or “-”.
* 10,452 voters registered under single addresses, some of which were one-room houses or even commercial establishments like a brewery in Bangalore.
* 4,132 entries with unreadable or distorted photographs.
* 33,692 voters allegedly registered multiple times through Form 6, with minor changes in photo or spelling.