"Taken an oath of the Constitution...": Rahul Gandhi Responds to ECI After "Vote Chori" Allegations

Rahul Gandhi has pushed back against the Election Commission of India on Friday, after the poll body reportedly demanded that he either submit a signed declaration under electoral rules supporting his claims of voter fraud or apologise for what it described as “absurd” allegations.

Speaking in Bengaluru, Rahul Gandhi dismissed the ECI’s demand for an affidavit, stating, “The Election Commission demands an affidavit from me. It says that I must take an oath. I have already taken the oath of the Constitution in Parliament.”

He further alleged that the ECI had taken down its websites in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Bihar following scrutiny over voter data. “Today, when the people of the country are asking questions about our data, the Election Commission has shut down its website,” he said. “The Election Commission knows that if the public starts questioning them, their entire structure will collapse," he added.

According to sources cited by PTI and the Hindustan Times, the ECI challenged Gandhi to submit names of electors who were allegedly added or removed from voter lists without justification. Officials said that if Gandhi truly believed in the legitimacy of his analysis, he should have no hesitation in signing the declaration, as required under electoral rules. They added that failure to do so would indicate that he did not trust his own conclusions, in which case, he should apologise to the nation.

The senior Congress leader sparked a massive controversy on Thursday at a press conference in Delhi, where he made explosive allegations of large-scale voter list manipulation in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment of Karnataka, which falls under the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat. He claimed that approximately 1,00,250 votes had been “stolen” from the Congress in the segment, alleging serious irregularities such as duplicate voter entries, fake addresses, invalid photos, and misuse of voter registration forms.

According to Gandhi, Congress had been projected to win 16 seats in Karnataka based on internal assessments, but only secured nine. Investigating the seven unexpected losses, the party chose to focus on Mahadevapura. He said that BJP received 2,29,632 votes in this segment, compared to Congress’s 1,15,586, resulting in a margin of 1,14,046 votes. This gap, he claimed, played a decisive role in BJP’s overall win in Bangalore Central, where the victory margin was 32,707 votes.

He alleged that their investigation uncovered 11,965 duplicate voter entries, citing examples such as Gurkeerat Singh Dang, who reportedly appeared four times on the electoral roll in different booths. He also pointed to the case of Aditya Srivastava, allegedly registered as a voter in three different states. Gandhi further claimed that 40,009 entries involved fake or invalid addresses, while 10,452 voters were registered at single addresses in bulk. Another 4,132 voter records had invalid photographs, and 33,692 entries showed alleged misuse of Form 6, used for adding new voters.

Describing this as a nationwide “vote chori model,” Gandhi said similar voter list frauds were happening across multiple constituencies. He urged the judiciary to intervene, saying, "The democracy we love so much doesn’t exist anymore.”

Gandhi also raised concerns about the integrity of the electoral process in Maharashtra, particularly the sharp increase in new voter registrations shortly before the state elections. Gandhi claimed that in Maharashtra and Haryana, more voters were added to the rolls in five months than in the preceding five years. He went on to say that more voters were added than the total population of Maharashtra itself. “Huge jump in voter turnout after 5 pm. Our alliance got wiped out while the alliance swept in the Lok Sabha. At the state level, between Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha, one crore voters came in,” he said.

In response to these claims, the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Bihar issued formal notices to Gandhi. They requested that he submit a signed declaration along with specific names of electors who were allegedly included or excluded wrongfully, so that action could be initiated under electoral rules.

The Maharashtra CEO’s letter, citing Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, stated, “It is understood that during a press conference held today, you mentioned the inclusion of ineligible electors and exclusion of eligible electors in the Electoral Rolls. You are kindly requested to sign and return the enclosed Declaration/Oath along with the name(s) of such elector(s) so that necessary proceedings can be initiated.”

The letter also highlighted that the draft and final electoral rolls had been shared with Congress in August and September 2024, and that the party had not submitted any objections during that period. The Karnataka CEO issued a similar notice earlier in the day, asking Gandhi to submit an affidavit and provide supporting documentation for his allegations of large-scale voter fraud in Mahadevapura.​