Bengaluru— Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Friday hit back at the Election Commission’s (EC) demand for an affidavit regarding his allegations of large-scale electoral fraud, asserting that he had “already taken the oath of the Constitution in Parliament.”
“The Election Commission demands an affidavit from me. It says that I must take an oath. I have already taken the oath of the Constitution in Parliament,” Gandhi said while addressing the media in Bengaluru.
His remarks came a day after he accused the BJP and the EC of colluding in a “huge criminal fraud” involving voter-list manipulation, terming it a “vote theft” operation.
Following Gandhi’s claims, EC officials sought concrete proof and a signed declaration specifying instances of alleged malpractice. The poll body also dismissed the allegations as “baseless” and urged him to either substantiate them or refrain from making such charges.
On Thursday, Gandhi alleged that in one Karnataka constituency alone, 1,00,250 votes were stolen, citing data showing 11,965 duplicate voters, 40,009 with fake or invalid addresses, 10,452 bulk voters registered to a single address, 4,132 with invalid photos, and 33,692 allegedly misusing Form 6 for new voter registration.
Calling this a “vote chori model” allegedly used nationwide, the Congress leader urged judicial intervention, claiming that “the democracy that we love so much, does not exist anymore.” He further alleged that the EC was “busy destroying” what he termed “criminal evidence” gathered by the Congress.
