The Election Commission has denied Vote Chori claims and requested formal complaints as Rahul Gandhi launched a “Vote Adhikar Yatra” to protest alleged manipulation from August 17.
Bengaluru: Amid ongoing controversies surrounding the special intensive revision of electoral rolls and allegations of “vote theft,” the Election Commission (EC) clarified on Saturday, August 16 that political parties should have raised any errors in the electoral lists during the claims and objections period of previous elections. The panel said that electoral rolls are shared with parties well before elections to allow for corrections. The EC said some parties and their local agents did not carefully check the voter lists or report mistakes to the officials on time. The right time to raise these issues was during the claims and objections period. If mistakes were reported then, the officials could have corrected them before the elections. “It seems that some political parties and their Booth Level Agents (BLAs) did not examine the Electoral Rolls at the appropriate time and did not point out errors, if any, to SDMs/EROS, DEOS or CEOS. Recently, some Political Parties and individuals are raising issues about errors in Electoral Rolls, including the Electoral Rolls prepared in the past,” the poll body said in an official statement.
The EC welcomed ongoing scrutiny by both political parties and voters, noting that this process aids officials in correcting errors and maintaining accurate electoral rolls—a core objective of the Commission. The EC also announced plans to hold a press conference on Sunday. This statement comes after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi presented what he described as explosive evidence against the Election Commission, accusing it of collusion with the BJP. He cited data from the Mahadevapura assembly segment in Bengaluru Central, Karnataka, a Congress-ruled state. Meanwhile, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav alleged that the Commission was involved in a scheme to manipulate Bihar’s voter list by issuing multiple Elector Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) to BJP members.
The Election Commission has strongly denied these accusations and requested Rahul Gandhi to sign an affidavit to formalize his complaint, which he refused, stating that he had already sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution. The EC also objected to Gandhi’s use of the term “vote chori” (vote theft), describing such language as misleading and aimed at creating a false narrative.
Rahul Gandhi to Begin Vote Adhikar Yatra
In response, Rahul Gandhi has launched the “Vote Adhikar Yatra,” a campaign against the alleged electoral roll manipulation during the EC’s special intensive revision in poll-bound Bihar. Starting Sunday, the yatra will span over 16 days and cover more than 20 districts. Rahul described the initiative as a fight to safeguard the fundamental democratic right of “one person, one vote,” urging people to join him in protecting the Constitution. Announcing the campaign on X, Gandhi said the yatra is a ‘direct fight against vote theft and a decisive battle to protect democracy, the Constitution, and the principle of one man, one vote’. He urged youth, workers, and farmers to join the movement, promising to work for a clean voter list across the country.