Congress ramps ups ‘vote chori’ stir with portal as EC counters charge

Upping the ante over Rahul Gandhi’s poll rigging claims, the Congress has launched a web portal for people to register and demand accountability from the poll panel against what it called “vote chori”, and express support for the demand for digital voter rolls.

In a post on X, Rahul said, “Our demand from the EC is clear. Show transparency and make the digital voter list public… support this demand by registering on votechori.in/ecdemand.” Rahul will lead a march from the Parliament House Complex to the EC office on Monday as part of the “vote chori” campaign.

Party president Mallikarjun Kharge will later host a dinner for MPs of the INDIA bloc, sources said. The move is seen as a united effort by the Congress-led Opposition against the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar and alleged large-scale rigging in polls.

The EC on Sunday once again fact-checked Rahul’s claims on alleged manipulation in the voters’ list of the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency. It dismissed the claim that a woman voter, Shakun Rani, had voted twice, saying, “In the Election Commission inquiry, it was found that Shakun Rani only voted once, not twice as claimed by Rahul Gandhi.” On August 7, Rahul had levelled allegations of “vote theft”, including the case of a 70-year-old woman who he claimed registered twice as a voter within two months using Form 6, meant for first-time voters. During his presentation, he alleged two votes were cast using Rani’s ID card, citing a document with tick marks purportedly made by a polling booth officer. However, the EC clarified that the document he presented “is not a document issued by the polling officer”.

In a related development, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah said the legal department had been directed to probe alleged vote theft in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment under the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency, following Rahul’s suggestion. He said the issue would be addressed before the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections.

The Chief Election Officers (CEOs) of Karnataka and Haryana on Sunday again sought Rahul’s sworn response over his vote-theft allegation.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi, in a post on X, said the data Rahul presented came from the EC’s electoral rolls. She questioned whether the duplicate names and bulk voter entries were a result of design or process failure, demanding transparency from the poll body.

Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai, who contested against PM Narendra Modi in Varanasi, claimed, “People of Varanasi are ashamed that PM Modi won the election through ‘vote-theft’. We will take to the streets to protest.”