EC yet to demand affidavit from Anurag over ‘vote chori’ claims

More than 24 hours after BJP MP Anurag Thakur alleged fake voter registrations in Rae Bareli, Wayanad, Diamond Harbour, Kannauj and two other Opposition-won parliamentary seats, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has not sought a written affidavit under oath from him to substantiate the claims.

Thakur had further alleged that the Opposition promotes electoral fraud to protect infiltrators’ vote banks and for appeasement politics.

However, on August 7, when Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi made a detailed presentation on alleged vote theft in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment of the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency — which the Congress narrowly lost in the 2024 General Election — the ECI had immediately demanded a signed affidavit under oath to back his claims.

When The Tribune asked whether the Commission would seek a similar affidavit from Thakur, there was no response until the time of going to press.

Meanwhile, representatives of Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee marched to Thakur’s residence on Thursday to present documents countering his allegations of fake voters in the constituency. Thakur had claimed that in one address under Banerjee’s seat, 47 voter IDs were registered, and that another address

listed names of people from different religions.

The Trinamool Congress responded that of the 47 people listed at one address, 41 currently reside there. Of the remaining six, one has passed away, one lives in Odisha, three are married and living elsewhere and another is away for work. A TMC delegation handed over all supporting documents to Thakur at his residence.

Congress leader KC Venugopal also hit back at Thakur’s claim that around 93,000 suspicious voters were found in Wayanad. In a post on X, he said: “In its desperate attempt to cast aspersions against @RahulGandhi ji and raise baseless allegations against his victory in Wayanad, the BJP failed to do its basic homework. In its haste to score political points, it ignored the ground realities of Kerala — the repeated family name in the roll is actually the name of a village, and there are indeed three different women with the same name in different booths.”

Provide proof, given written affidavit, says poll panel

Facing massive allegations of vote theft from the principal Opposition party, the Congress, and with two BJP leaders having been issued notices for two voter IDs, the EC on Thursday countered that if anyone had any proof of any person actually voting twice in any election, it should be shared with a written affidavit rather than colouring all the electors of India as “chor” without any proof.