Rahul Gandhi’s hurling of accusations of rigging at the Election Commission on Thursday afternoon resulted in the chief electoral officer of Karnataka shooting off a letter to the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha within minutes of his news conference in a remarkable display of bureaucratic speed.
The poll panel asked him to substantiate his claims of “vote theft” with evidence under a signed oath.
The letter requested the Congress MP to submit a signed declaration under Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, along with names of electors that he alleges were wrongfully included in the voter list.
“You are kindly requested to sign and return the enclosed Declaration/Oath... along with the name(s) of such elector(s) so that necessary proceedings can be initiated,” the Karnataka chief electoral officer wrote in the letter, which the poll panel shared on social media.
The poll body said that the electoral rolls were prepared in a “transparent manner”.
Election results, it reminded Rahul Gandhi, “can be questioned only by way of election petition before the Hon’ble High Court”.
It also pointed out that the window to challenge the election of MPs in Karnataka had closed.
In his news meet, Rahul had said he and his party had suspicions that took six months of “investigation” to confirm.
The declaration form enclosed with the letter to the leader of the Opposition warned that submitting false evidence is punishable under Section 227 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), while making a false declaration related to electoral rolls is punishable under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
Later, the Maharashtra chief electoral office also addressed a letter to Rahul.
The letter requested “a signed declaration and oath under Rule 20(3)(b)... along with the names of the elector(s) concerned, so that necessary proceedings can be initiated”.
“I’m saying it publicly to everybody,” Rahul told reporters when informed about the Election Commission’s response. “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.”
He added: “Interestingly, they haven’t denied the information.
“I’m a politician. What I say to the people is my word. They haven’t told the voter that what Rahul Gandhi is talking about is wrong. Why don’t you say they are wrong? Because you know the truth. You know that we know that you have done this across the country.”
On Thursday evening, Rahul Gandhi hosted a dinner for Opposition leaders at his residence. Mallikarjun Kharge, Akhilesh Yadav, Mehbooba Mufti were among the leaders present.
During this, the leaders discussed the special intensive revision of the voter list in Bihar. Rahul Gandhi gave a presentation on the issue of alleged irregularities in the voter list.
On the Election Commission's response to Rahul's allegations, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal told reporters: “The section that talks about the period for lodging complaints and objections states that any claim for inclusion of a name in the roll, or any objection to an entry therein, must be made within a period of 30 days. The 30 days have passed, many years have passed, and no such claims were made. Any such claim for inclusion in the electoral roll as a new elector must be submitted in Form 6, signed by the applicant. Any objection to the inclusion or for the deletion of a name must be filed in Form 7. Neither Form 6 nor Form 7 was filed. Now they are asking for an affidavit. On what basis should one provide the affidavit? Is this a joke? First, the commission ignores the issue, and then they ask for affidavit from Rahul Gandhi. This is such a big fraud and few people are involved in this. It is obvious that the party in power is involved in this.”
