The Congress on Thursday said BJP MP Anurag Thakur’s allegation that “fake” voters with Muslim names had been enlisted in the constituencies of top Opposition leaders only proved that the 2024 Lok Sabha polls had been fought on the basis of a “fake voters’ list” and demanded that the elections be nullified.
The Congress also questioned why the EC had not sent any notice to the BJP MP over his claims although over 24 hours had passed, pointing to the alacrity with which the poll panel had done so in the case of Rahul Gandhi ovder his “vote theft” allegations.
On August 7, Rahul had presented the Congress’s findings that there were 1,00,250 bogus voters in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment under the Bengaluru Central parliamentary seat during last year’s Lok Sabha polls.
Even before his media conference could end, Karnataka’s chief electoral officer (CEO) issued a notice to him, asking him to file objections to the relevant entries in the electoral list under Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, which requires a person to submit proof under oath.
Later that day, the Maharashtra CEO did the same. Haryana’s CEO followed on August 9. Rahul has persisted with his allegations of electoral malpractice.
Congress media and publicity head Pawan Khera told reporters on Thursday: “The notice demanded an affidavit from him (Rahul). It has been more than 24 hours since Anurag Thakur held a media conference, but he has not received any notice.”
He added: “Nullify the Lok Sabha elections, which were fought based on a fake voters’ list, as proved by ruling party MP Anurag Thakur’s assertions…. If we get Varanasi’s electronic voters’ list, we will prove that Modi is sitting in the Prime Minister’s chair by stealing the elections.”
Khera explained: “It took us six months to obtain data for one Assembly constituency, Mahadevapura, because we were not provided with the electronic voters’ list. BJP MP Anurag Thakur obtained data on six Lok Sabha seats in just six days…. How did he manage to get this data so quickly? When the Election Commission has the electronic voters’ list, why has it not been provided to the Congress?”
Former chief election commissioner O.P. Rawat and former Lok Sabha secretary-general P.D.T. Achary had pointed out that the rule cited by the CEOs only applied to claims and objections to entries in the draft rolls prepared after revisions. Rahul had raised objections to the final rolls that were used for the election, and not during the revision process.
Rawat also told this paper that it was a norm that the EC would probe allegations of senior political functionaries without waiting for them to formally complain. This norm was adhered to by the Uttar Pradesh CEO, who issued a statement on August 7 saying that two voters shown in Rahul’s presentation as Uttar Pradesh residents were not found on the rolls.
Neither the EC nor the CEOs of Uttar Pradesh, Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala — states where Thakur alleged “vote theft” had taken place — responded publicly to his allegations or to queries from this newspaper on what action they may have taken.
An EC source said — without referring to Thakur or Rahul: “If anyone has any proof of any person actually voting twice in any election, it should be shared with the ECI along with a written affidavit rather than colouring all electors of India as ‘chor’ without any proof.
“Trying to create a false narrative by using dirty phrases like ‘vote chori’ for our electors is not only a direct attack on the crores of Indian electors but also an assault on the integrity of lakhs of election staff.”