The Chief Electoral Officers of at least three states on Thursday asked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to share the names of electors he claimed were either included or excluded wrongfully from the voter lists along with a signed declaration for the poll authorities to initiate “necessary proceedings” in the matter.
Election Commission sources said Gandhi should either sign a declaration under the Conduct of Election Rules and submit the list of people who he claims were either wrongfully included or removed from the voters’ list or he should “stop misleading” the people of India and “stop making baseless allegations” against the poll authority.
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In a letter to Gandhi soon after he levelled allegations of vote fraud, the Karnataka chief electoral officer (CEO) said that during a press conference in the national capital, “you had mentioned about the inclusion of ineligible electors and exclusion of eligible electors in the Electoral Rolls… .”
“You are kindly requested to sign and return the enclosed declaration/oath under Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, along with the name(s) of such elector(s) so that necessary proceedings can be initiated.”
The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha claimed there was “vote 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.
The CEO told the Congress leader that the electoral rolls are prepared in a transparent manner, as per the Representation of the People Act, 1950, the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 and the Instructions issued by the Election Commission from time to time.
The CEO pointed out that the latest electoral rolls were shared with the representative of Congress as per procedure.
In his letter to the Congress leader, the Maharashtra CEO said his party did not file any appeal or second appeal before poll authorities claiming flaws in the voters’ list.
The Haryana CEO also pointed out in his letter to Gandhi that no appeal was filed against the alleged discrepancy in the state electoral roll.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC’s Indira Bhawan headquarters, where he gave the presentation on the alleged poll fraud, Gandhi hit back at the Election Commission for demanding his signed declaration on his claims and said he had made the remarks publicly and they can “take it as an oath”.
“I am a politician, what I say to the people is my word. I am saying it to the people publicly, taking it as an oath. Interestingly, they haven’t denied the information.
“They haven’t said the voter lists (shown by me) are wrong, they are saying Rahul Gandhi should say it under oath… they know the truth. We know you (EC) have done this across the country,” the former Congress president said.
In a warning to those involved in perpetrating “electoral fraud”, Gandhi said there are going to be consequences for every single polling officer who is doing this.
“It doesn’t matter how senior or junior you are. One day, the Opposition is going to come to power and then you see what we do to you; because you are attacking the foundation of what our forefathers who fought for India’s freedom built and we are not going to allow you to do that, no matter who you are,” he said.
Gandhi said his message to the Election Commission is that they are not in the business of destroying Indian democracy but in the business of protecting it.
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“This is a crime that is being committed against the Indian Constitution, against the Indian flag. This is nothing less than that,” he said, alleging poll rigging in various parts of the country.
(Note: Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Daily Jagran staff. Credit:PTI)