Pawan Khera.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: The BJP on Wednesday alleged that Congress leader Pawan Khera's wife also has two active voter ID cards, and said party leader Rahul Gandhi cannot extricate himself from such "acts of criminality within his own ranks".
This comes a day after the ruling BJP alleged that Khera had two voter IDs and Gandhi was running a campaign against voter-roll revision in Bihar to "protect and hide" his party's theft of votes.
There was no immediate response from the Congress, Khera or his wife Kota Neelima, who is also a party leader in Telangana, to the BJP charge.
"Kota Neelima, another Congress leader, candidate from the Khairatabad (60) Assembly segment in Telangana, and wife of Pawan Khera, also holds two active EPICs (Electors Photo Identity Cards) - one registered in Khairatabad (assembly constituency in Telangana) and another in New Delhi," BJP IT department head Amit Malviya said on X.
"It is now quite obvious that Congress leaders hold multiple EPIC numbers and are registered voters in more than one place. This is no coincidence.
"Those indulging in 'Vote Chori' are the very ones maligning common citizens for exercising their democratic rights and weakening our institutions," he charged.
Gandhi cannot "extricate" himself from "these acts of criminality" within his own ranks, particularly involving people aspiring for public office and members of his "inner coterie", the BJP leader said, and demanded a response from the Congress leader, who is also the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha.
Malviya also demanded that the Election Commission launch a probe into the matter.
The BJP has launched a counterattack on the Congress after Gandhi asserted on Monday his party will soon come out with a "hydrogen bomb" of revelations about "vote chori" and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be able to "show his face" to the country afterwards.
Gandhi made the remarks at the concluding event of his 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' in Bihar, days after he claimed that an analysis of the voter data pertaining to a Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka showed that elections were "rigged" by the poll panel allegedly at the behest of the BJP to help the saffron party "steal" votes and win the seat in the 2024 general elections.
Slamming the Congress leader over his ''vote chori'' charge, Malviya said, "Rahul Gandhi held a press conference and, without adequate due diligence, targeted and tarnished honest voters - even putting them at risk by revealing their identities without consent.
"He doxxed young, upwardly mobile professionals and poor daily wagers who had moved cities in search of better opportunities," the BJP leader charged.