New Delhi, 7 August — In a fiery press conference on Thursday, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi accused the Election Commission of colluding with the BJP to commit “massive electoral fraud” in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, calling it a “crime against the Constitution” and demanding judicial intervention.
Gandhi based his allegations on voter data analysis from Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency—particularly the Mahadevapura Assembly segment—claiming the EC oversaw the inclusion of fake, duplicate, and bulk voters to swing the results in BJP’s favour. “This is not just manipulation—it is a theft of democracy,” he said.
He alleged that nearly 1 lakh fake votes were detected in Mahadevapura alone, helping the BJP secure a crucial lead. “The Congress won all other Assembly segments except Mahadevapura, where the BJP won with a margin of over 1.14 lakh votes. This single seat flipped the outcome of Bangalore Central,” Gandhi claimed.
Presenting data sourced from the EC itself, Gandhi listed irregularities including 11,965 duplicate voters, 40,009 voters with fake or invalid addresses, 10,452 ‘bulk voters’ registered under single addresses, and 4,132 entries with invalid photos. Another 33,692 were alleged to have misused Form 6, meant for new voter registration.
“They say these are free and fair polls. How can one lakh fake votes in one segment be free or fair?” Gandhi asked, displaying the data on a giant screen for the media. “This is 100 percent black-and-white evidence. And the EC is now busy destroying it.”
The Congress leader said that despite the EC demanding a signed declaration from him, he stood by his public remarks. “What I say to the people is my word. Take it as an oath. They haven’t even denied the data I’ve shown. They just want me to say it under oath—because they know it’s true.”
He argued that the 2024 results in Karnataka defied expectations. “Our internal assessment predicted 16 seats. We only got nine. In seven seats we lost unexpectedly. So we dug into one—Mahadevapura. What we found is damning.”
Accusing the Election Commission of being an active participant in what he described as a “nationwide crime,” Gandhi said: “If the EC refuses to share electronic voter data and CCTV footage from polling stations over the last 10–15 years, they are complicit.”
He also delivered a stern warning to election officials allegedly involved in the fraud. “Every single polling officer who played a part in this will be held accountable. It doesn’t matter how senior or junior. There will be consequences when the Opposition comes to power.”
Calling the fraud “a direct attack on the ideals of our freedom fighters,” Gandhi urged the judiciary to intervene. “Democracy is what separates us from autocracy—and it no longer exists. If this is true, then what’s left?”
He went on to say that Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to power with a “fragile majority” and needed just 25 seats to tilt the balance. “The BJP won 25 seats with margins under 33,000 votes. They just had to steal those, and that’s exactly what they did.”
“Exit polls are consistently wrong. Internal surveys are ignored. This isn’t coincidence—this is choreography. Elections today are designed for manipulation,” he alleged.
“The EC’s fear is that if we analyse other constituencies the way we did Mahadevapura, the entire myth of Indian democracy will collapse,” Gandhi concluded.
