The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Karnataka has written to Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, urging him to provide the names of electors he alleged were wrongly included or excluded from the state’s electoral rolls. The CEO has also asked Gandhi to return a signed declaration under Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, to facilitate necessary proceedings.
The Election Commission’s letter includes a formal declaration template, warning that any false statement in relation to the voter rolls could invite legal action under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and Section 227 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita, 2023.
The Karnataka CEO reportedly expects Gandhi’s signed declaration by Thursday evening.
Rahul Gandhi Claims Fraud In Karnataka Voters' List
The letter comes after Rahul Gandhi, during a press conference, alleged large-scale manipulation of the electoral rolls in Karnataka, claiming that ineligible voters had been added and eligible voters removed. Responding to the CEO’s request, Gandhi said, "I'm a politician. What I say to the people is my word. I'm saying it publicly to everybody. Take it as an oath. This is their data, and we are displaying their data. This is not our data. 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 are wrong. Why don't you say they wrong? Because you know the truth. You know that we know that you have done this across the country," he said.
He alleged widespread voter fraud in Karnataka’s Mahadevapura Assembly constituency during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He claimed that more than 1,00,250 votes were manipulated. Gandhi pointed to a range of irregularities, including the presence of thousands of duplicate entries, voters registered with fake or unverifiable addresses and numerous instances of bulk registrations at single residential locations.