The Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer on Sunday once again issued a formal notice to Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, asking him to furnish documentary evidence for his allegations of voter fraud in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The fresh notice issued on Sunday directly addressed Rahul Gandhi’s claim that a 70-year-old voter, Shakun Rani, had voted twice in the polls based on Election Commission of India (ECI) data.
The notice read: “On inquiry by the CEO’s office found that Rani had cast her vote only once.
“Preliminary enquiry conducted by this office also reveals that the tick-marked document shown by you in the presentation (copy enclosed) is not a document issued by the polling officer,” the notice stated.
“You are kindly requested to provide the relevant documents based on which you have concluded that Shakun Rani or anyone else has voted twice, so that a detailed inquiry can be undertaken by this office,” it said.
The latest development follows an earlier notice on August 7 in which the CEO asked Rahul Gandhi to sign an affidavit detailing his allegations of large-scale additions and deletions in the voter list in Karnataka.
Rahul Gandhi had made those claims during a press conference in New Delhi the same day, accusing the poll panel of “choreographing” the elections to benefit the BJP.
Rahul Gandhi had alleged that in Mahadevapura constituency alone, 1,00,250 votes had been “stolen” through duplicate entries, fake addresses, and bulk registrations at single locations.
“This is Election Commission data. Interestingly, they haven’t denied the information. They haven’t told the voter list that Rahul Gandhi is talking about is wrong. Why don’t you say it’s wrong? Because you know the truth. You know that we know that you have done this across the country,” he said.
On Sunday, Rahul Gandhi also took his campaign to the public, launching the website ‘votechori.in’ and asking citizens to join the demand for transparency.
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and state Congress president DK Shivakumar, who joined Rahul Gandhi at the ‘Vote Adhikar Rally’ in Bengaluru on August 8, has also filed a complaint with the CEO alleging voter fraud in Mahadevapura and Gandhinagar.
“Vote theft not only happened in Mahadevapura, but across Karnataka,” he said.
“We have requested the Election Commission to investigate the fraud and punish officials concerned, be it a block-level officer or returning officer.”
The CEO has also asked Shivakumar to submit documentary evidence under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
