Rahul Gandhi presents evidence against BPJ on the issue of vote chori
The notice from the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Karnataka referred to Rahul Gandhi’s comment that a woman named Shakun Rani had voted twice in mahadevapura during the Lok Sabha elections held last year.
Karnataka’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Sunday issued a notice to Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, asking him to submit documents to support his earlier allegations of “Vote Chori” in New Delhi.
The notice was related to one of Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of electoral malpractices in the Mahadevapura assembly constituency of Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency. It referred to the Congress leader’s remark that a person named Shakun Rani had voted twice during the Lok Sabha elections held last year.
“You have also said that as per the record given by the polling officer, Smt. Shakun Rani has voted twice. You have said; “Us ID card par do baar mat lagahai, wo jo tik hai, bolota khuda ke adhikari ki hai”. On questioning, Smt. Shakun Rani has said, “She has read the notice only once and has not allegedly voted.”
As stated by Karnataka CEO V Anbukumar, it said that “The preliminary investigation conducted by this office also reveals that the tick marked document mentioned by you in the submission is not a document issued by the polling officer.
Therefore, you are requested to provide the relevant documents on the basis of which you have concluded that Smt. Shakun Rani or anyone else has voted twice, so that a detailed investigation can be conducted by this office.
In a recent news conference, Gandhi alleged that 1,00,250 “fake votes” were created in the Mahadevapura assembly constituency to ensure BJP’s victory. He listed five ways in which fake voters were created to propel the saffron party.
These included duplicate votes, fake and invalid addresses of voters, bulk voters at one address, invalid photos and misuse of Form 6. At a protest held in Bengaluru on August 8, he also urged the Karnataka government to investigate the alleged irregularities during the 2024 elections.
Shortly after Rahul Gandhi made the allegations, the CEO asked him to submit his complaint about the tampering of the electoral roll “under oath”.
Following the Congress’ protest on Friday, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar submitted a memorandum to the CEO on the irregularities. On Saturday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the Law Department would investigate the allegations and submit a report soon.
Reacting to the development, former Mahadevpura MLA Arvind Limbavali said that Shakun Rani was from Panipat and lived in the former apartment. “She tried to get her name added in the voter list with Form 5. She did not get any response for two months and then she applied again and when she checked the voter list later, she found her name twice in the same booth,” the BJP leader said in a statement.
Limbavali had accused Rahul Gandhi of saying that Rani had voted twice.
“When I checked the roll with my BLA – because we maintain these records – we found that a person named Shakun Rani had voted only once. We asked her and she told us that she had voted only under serial number 1228 in the voter list for booth number 341,” he said.
