The controversy surrounding Rahul Gandhi’s accusations of ‘vote theft’ in the elections has intensified, with Shashi Tharoor adding his support. Gandhi has stated that the alleged actions are against the constitution. Mallikarjun Kharge also expressed support, emphasizing the need to protect democracy. The BJP has dismissed these claims as illogical. Tharoor, who has been critical of the party’s actions recently, has urged the Election Commission to take action.
Tharoor, a senior Congress leader and former Union Minister, has demonstrated a willingness to voice dissenting opinions. However, he has supported Rahul Gandhi’s claims regarding the Election Commission and vote theft, calling it a serious issue. On social media platform X, he stated, “These are serious questions which must be seriously addressed in the interests of all parties & all voters. Our democracy is too precious to allow its credibility to be destroyed by incompetence, carelessness or worse, deliberate tampering.” He demanded urgent action from the Election Commission and continuous updates to the public.
Previously, Rahul Gandhi, former President of the Congress, presented data from a Karnataka assembly constituency, alleging a pattern of ‘vote theft’ implemented to benefit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He believes this was done in collaboration with the BJP and the Election Commission, constituting a crime against the constitution.
He presented data from the Mahadevapura assembly constituency in Karnataka, highlighting alleged irregularities. He stated that it took six months to gather evidence of the manipulation, and the Election Commission’s failure to provide machine-readable data hindered the investigation.
Specifically referencing Mahadevapura, Gandhi stated that his team found evidence of manipulation. He alleged that the BJP was behind in 6 out of 7 assembly constituencies in the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha seat, but won decisively in Mahadevapura.
The Congress leader claimed that 1,00,250 votes were stolen in the Mahadevapura constituency, where the BJP won by 32,707 votes. He described the alleged irregularities, including duplicate voters, fake addresses, multiple registrations at the same address, fake photos, and misuse of Form-6 for new voters. He provided the example of a voter named Aditya Srivastava, who had multiple entries in the voter list.