Karnataka Election Commission Seeks Oath From Congress Over Allegations Of Electoral Malpractice

While most of the Congress leaders, including AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge spoke about how the Election Commission had connived with BJP in electoral malpractices, Leader of Opposition in Parliament Rahul Gandhi restricted himself to pose five basic questions to the Election Commission in general and Karnataka Election Commission in particular.

Vinay Madhava Gowda Updated: Saturday, August 09, 2025, 12:23 AM IST
ANI

ANI

Bengaluru: The tiff between the Karnataka Election Commission and the Karnataka Congress has continued on Friday, with the Election Commission seeking a signed Declaration/Oath for the charges they have levelled against the Election Commission.

On Friday morning, the Karnataka Congress organised a massive rally -- `Our Vote Our Right' at the Freedom Park, Bengaluru, protesting against the Election Commission's `Votechori'.

While most of the Congress leaders, including AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge spoke about how the Election Commission had connived with BJP in electoral malpractices, Leader of Opposition in Parliament Rahul Gandhi restricted himself to pose five basic questions to the Election Commission in general and Karnataka Election Commission in particular.

Though Rahul Gandhi had sought an appointment with the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, along with KPCC Working President G C Chandrashekhar and BDA Chairman N A Harris went to Election Commission and submitted a memorandum signed by AICC General Secretaries K C Venugopal, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and himself.

In the memorandum, the KPCC has sought explanation regarding `egrongious errors' in the voter list in Mahadevapura Assembly constituency, coming under Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha constituency.

``We are absolutely shocked and bewildered to find that out of the 6,59,826 registered electors in Mahadevapura for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, our detailed and elaborate analysis reveal that more than one lakh voters are either fake or duplicate or ghosts or ineligible. That is a whopping 15% of all electors in one assembly constituency in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were fraudulent.''

You gave each candidate physical paper copies of photo electoral rolls during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. It took an enormous effort of over six months and a team of twenty people to follow the below steps to come to this conclusion. After this painstaking effort over six months for just one constituency, we found that 15% of registered electors Mahadevapura were dubious.

``Intriguingly and perhaps not coincidentally, the BJP candidate in Bengaluru Central trailed the Congress candidate by 82,178 votes combined in the remaining seven assembly constituencies of Bengaluru Central, but in Mahadevapura, the BJP candidate got a massive lead of 1,14,046 votes over the Congress candidate and thus was declared the overall winner in Bengaluru Central,'' the memorandum noted.

Stating that the KPCC was formally lodging a complaint, urging the Election Commission to investigate all voter lists of 2024 Lok Sabha in all the constituencies in Karnataka and make digital photo electoral list copies available.The KPCC also urged the Election Commission to suspend all EROS and AEROS who have signed fraudulent For 6, Form 7 and Form 8.

Soon after the Congress Committee submitted the memorandum and left the Election Commission, the Karnataka Chief Election Officer wrote a letter to D K Shivakumar, who is also Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President.

In his reply, the Chief Election Officer has said: ``With respect to your representation dated 05-08-2025, submitted on 08-08-2025, you have not submitted any documents in support of the references made in the representation. You are hereby kindly requested to submit the documents related to your complaint along with the declaration/Oath as per Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, so as to act upon the complaint.

The Election Commission has also sent a format of the Declaration/Oath to be signed.

Published on: Saturday, August 09, 2025, 12:23 AM IST

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