Poll panel says allegations baseless
New Delhi: The Congress has “concrete 100 per cent proof” that the Election Commission allowed cheating in a constituency in Karnataka, Rahul Gandhi claimed on Thursday and warned the poll panel that it will not get away with this “because we are going to come for you”.
Responding to Gandhi’s remarks, the EC said it is “highly unfortunate” that rather than filing an election petition in accordance with Section 80 of the Representation of the People Act, or if filed, awaiting the verdict of the High Court, he has not only made “baseless allegations” but also “chosen to threaten” a constitutional body.
An election petition can be filed within 45 days after poll results are announced by anyone not satisfied with the verdict. Such petitions can be filed in high courts of the state of the constituency concerned. Gandhi alleged that the poll panel is not functioning as the Election Commission of India and is “not doing its job”.
Asked about the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav’s reported remarks that the option of boycotting the Bihar assembly polls was open, Gandhi told reporters that his party has “concrete 100 per cent proof” of the EC allowing cheating in a seat in Karnataka.
“Not 90 per cent, when we decide to show it to you, it is a 100 per cent proof,” the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said.
“We just looked at one constituency and we found this. I am absolutely convinced that constituency after constituency this is the drama that is taking place. Thousands and thousands of new voters, how old are they? – 45, 50, 60, 65, thousands and thousands of them in one constituency. This is one thing, voter deletion, voter addition, new voters who are way above 18 (is going on)… So we have caught them,” he said.
“I want to send a message to the Election Commission – if you think you are going to get away with this, if your officers think they are going to get away with this, you are mistaken, you are not going to get away with this because we are going to come for you,” Gandhi told reporters in Parliament House premises.
Responding to Gandhi’s statement, an EC spokesperson said as far as the Karnataka electoral rolls of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls are concerned, not a single appeal was filed with any of the district magistrates or the chief electoral officer of the state – a valid legal remedy available to the Congress under Section 24 of the RP Act.
As far as the conduct of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls is concerned, of the 10 election petitions, not a single one was filed by any losing Congress candidate as a legal remedy available to the party under section 80 of the RP Act, he pointed out.
Gandhi on Wednesday had alleged that elections are being “stolen” in India and claimed that his party has figured out the modus operandi of the “votes theft” by studying a Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka.
