'Already taken oath under Constitution': Rahul Gandhi to EC

Leader of Opposition(LOP) Rahul Gandhi on Friday reacted to Election Commission's demand for an affidavit about his explosive claims of a "huge criminal fraud" in elections through collusion between the BJP and the poll body, saying he has "already taken the oath of the Constitution in Parliament".

"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,” the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said in Karnataka's Bengaluru.

The Lok Sabha LoP's reaction comes a day after his scathing attack on EC of a "vote theft".

Following the Congress leader's claims of electoral fraud, EC officials had demanded a proof, while requesting for a signed declaration detailing specific instances of voter-list manipulation.

Additionally, the EC refuted Gandhi's accusations. The poll body challenged him to substantiate his claims or refrain from making "baseless" allegations.

The LoP in the Lok Sabha claimed on Thursday that there was “vote chori” of 1,00,250 votes in a Karnataka constituency, with 11,965 duplicate voters in the segment, 40,009 voters with fake and invalid addresses, 10,452 bulk voters or single address voters, 4,132 voters with invalid photos and 33,692 voters misusing Form 6 of new voters.

Claiming the “vote chori model” was being used in many constituencies across the country, Rahul Gandhi also said the judiciary needs to get involved in this because “the democracy that we love so much, does not exist anymore”.

Gandhi said the Congress collected through research was “criminal evidence” and alleged that the poll commission was busy destroying such proof across the country.