The opposition Congress on Sunday toughened its stance on its claims of "vote theft" in certain states and vowed not to give up its fight to safeguard democracy in the country.
The grand old party questioned whether the Election Commission of India (ECI) is acting as an "agent" for the ruling BJP.
AICC general secretary K C Venugopal made the statement shortly after the Karnataka chief electoral officer sent a notice to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
The notice requested that Gandhi provide evidence for his claim that a woman had voted twice Following this, the EC again asked the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha to either sign a declaration to substantiate his allegations of vote theft in Karnataka, Haryana and Maharashtra or apologise to the nation for levelling "absurd" charges.
"The Congress won't backtrack from the matter at any cost. This is an issue to safeguard the democracy of our country and we will go to any extent for the same," Venugopal told reporters here.
"If the ECI has no other interest, why are they not providing the electronic voters' list?" he asked.
The Alappuzha MP asked why the EC wasn't providing the electronic voters' list and why it had decided to destroy CCTV footage.
The Congress leader announced that MPs from the INDIA alliance would march to the EC office in New Delhi on Monday, seeking action.
Additionally, a two-week "yatra" (journey) with all INDIA alliance parties will begin in Bihar on August 17 to raise awareness about the issue Noting that the party has already brought this matter to public attention and plans to take further steps to reach more people, he said a meeting of Congress general secretaries and in-charges is scheduled for Monday to plan their next moves.
"We won't leave this issue. We want a reply from the EIC," the AICC general secretary added.
Earlier in the day, Venugopal said the Congress will launch a comprehensive audit to uncover alleged irregularities in the voters' list from the last Lok Sabha elections.
He said there were 48 constituencies where INDIA bloc candidates lost by fewer than 50,000 votes, and the party would carry out extensive checks in all of them.
Addressing media in Alappuzha, Venugopal alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi "did not assume office with a genuine mandate", claiming this became evident after Rahul Gandhi released "evidence of electoral fraud".
Venugopal said, "A comprehensive audit will be conducted to identify irregularities in the voters' list from the last Lok Sabha elections." Gandhi on Thursday made explosive claims of a "huge criminal fraud" in polls through collusion between the BJP and the EC, as he cited an analysis in a constituency in Karnataka and said it was "a crime against the Constitution".
Alleging that the BJP seized power by manipulating the voter list in the 2019 polls, Venugopal claimed a proper investigation could force "Modi to resign".
Instead, he accused the Election Commission of threatening Gandhi and the Congress for raising objections.
However, Venugopal claimed that the EC is yet to respond to the irregularities flagged.
"Don't try to scare us," he told the Commission, adding that Congress would continue its fight.
Meanwhile, BJP state chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in Thiruvananthapuram that the allegations levelled by Gandhi against the ECI were like "wet crackers".
He accused Gandhi of 'targetting' the entire election process as Congress workers are fed up with the grand old party and its leadership.
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