'Serious Questions Must Be Seriously Addressed': Shashi Tharoor Backs Rahul Gandhi's Explosive 'Vote Chori' Charge Against BJP, EC

New Delhi: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, on Friday, August 8, publicly supported Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's damning accusations of electoral fraud against the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) and the Election Commission of India (ECI), marking a rare alignment with the party high command after months of friction.

Backing Gandhi's claims of large-scale manipulation in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Tharoor termed the allegations "Serious questions which must be seriously addressed."

Here's What Tharoor Said

Taking to X, the senior MP wrote, "Our democracy is too precious to allow its credibility to be destroyed by incompetence, carelessness or worse, deliberate tampering." He also urged the ECI to respond transparently and "clear the air."

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Tharoor's endorsement of the party’s official line comes after a phase of uneasy relations with Congress leadership. His recent praise for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sharp critiques of the Emergency period had distanced him from the central leadership, a fact BJP repeatedly highlighted to needle the Congress.

Have a look at his entire statement here:

Gandhi Alleges EC-BJP Nexus

Gandhi's press briefing triggered a political storm, after he accused the EC of colluding with the BJP to engineer a "choreographed" election. Calling it a "huge criminal fraud," Gandhi claimed that machine-level manipulation had taken place, most notably in Karnataka's Mahadevpura assembly segment.

He alleged the BJP gained an "inflated lead of 1,14,046 votes" in the area, helping it clinch the Bengaluru Central seat by just over 32,000 votes, despite Congress reportedly leading in most other segments.

Demanding access to machine-readable voter data from the last 10–15 years and CCTV footage from polling stations, Gandhi said, "If the EC does not give us machine-readable data for the past 10-15 years and the CCTV footage, they are partaking in the crime."

BJP Dismisses Charges

The BJP hit back, rubbishing Gandhi's remarks as "bogus claims" and accusing him of "insulting voters."

The ruling party said that the allegations were born out of "frustration and anger" over the Congress's repeated electoral failures, adding that voters would continue to reject such "irresponsible and shameless conduct."