Have already taken oath in Parliament: Rahul hits back at EC

With the Election Commission (EC) again seeking a signed declaration from Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi regarding the allegations of "vote theft" levelled by him, the Congress MP hit back, saying he had already taken "oath of the Constitution in Parliament". The Congress leader had also charged that the poll body was in collusion with the ruling BJP.

"The EC demands an affidavit from me. It says that I must take an oath. I have already taken the oath of the Constitution in Parliament,” Rahul said in Bengaluru, while addressing a 'Vote Adhikar' rally.

On Thurdsay, the Congress leader had levelled allegations of more than one lakh votes "being stolen" in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment of the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat, which the opposition party had lost narrowly to the ruling BJP in 2024.

In a direct attack on the LoP, the poll body on Friday asked him to either send a signed declaration of charges against it under oath or apologise to the nation.

EC sources said if Rahul believed his analysis and allegations were true, then he should have no problem in signing a declaration to that effect.

"However, if he does not do so, then it will mean that his allegations are absurd and then he should apologise to the nation," the EC sources said further.

On Thursday, soon after the Congress MP had given a detailed presentation to the media on how "vote theft" was effected at various levels in the Bangalore Assembly segment, the EC had retaliated by asking him to send a signed declaration under oath to that effect through the Chief Election Officer (CEO) of Karnataka.

The CEOs of Haryana and Maharashtra also, later in the day, had sought written declarations from him detailing his allegations against the poll body.

The LoP had claimed on Thursday that there was a “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 had also said the judiciary needs to get involved in this because “the democracy that we love so much does not exist anymore”.

Taking a further jibe at Rahul, the EC sources said as usual, he might present his claims and objections against special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar only after the Assembly polls in the state were over.

They went on to add that ever since the draft electoral roll for Bihar was published on August 1, not a single political party had come forward to present its objections to the addition or deletion of voters in the roll.