LoP in the Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi during a press conference, at AICC HQ, in New Delhi, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Claiming that the Election Commission’s “collusion” with the BJP is a “crime” against the Constitution and the tricolour, top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday raised questions on the electoral outcome of Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat, claiming that there was “chori” (stealing) of one lakh votes in Mahadevapura Assembly segment in it during the 2024 polls.
The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said the democracy that “we love so much does not exist” and the Congress has collected “concrete” and “criminal evidence of vote chori”, which the EC is “busy destroying”. He said the judiciary needs to get involved in this.
As the EC sought a signed declaration on his claims, he said he is “a politician” who has made the remarks publicly and they can “take it as an oath”. He said, “...what I say to the people is my word…Interestingly, they haven't denied the information. They haven't said the voter lists (shown by me) are wrong, they are saying Rahul Gandhi should say it under oath... they know the truth.”
On the alleged irregularities in Mahadevapura, he told a press conference, in the Bangalore Central seat, the Congress (Mansoor Ali Khan) got 6,26,208 votes, the BJP (PC Mohan) 6,58,915 votes while the margin was 32,707.
He said while the Congress was leading in all but one Assembly seats, its deficit in Mahadevapura was a whopping 1,14,046 votes and their analysis found that 1,00,250 voters were fake. This seat significantly contributed to their election win, and the Lok Sabha result went in their favour on that seat, he said. Congress led only in four of the eight Assembly seats in the 2024 polls.
According to Rahul, 11,965 voters were named in multiple places, 40,009 have fake or invalid addresses, 10,452 bulk voters have single addresses, photographs of 4,132 were not visible or invalid and 33,692 first time voters were aged 95, 98, 65 years etc.
Providing details about the instance of voters listed in multiple booths, he said a particular 26-year-old male voter had his name listed in Booth numbers 116, 124, 125 and 126. Incidentally, the images of the voter list entry of this voter in the presentation showed that he had four different voter ID cards.
Another voter, a 37-year-old male have votes in Booth Number 458 and 459 as well as in Lucknow. A 33-year-old male voter had two votes in Booth No 513 and 321 as well as in Varanasi, Rahul said.
He raised questions about the "misuse" of Form 6, which is for registering as a voter for the first time, and claimed discrepancies in the entry of 33,692 voters. He said Form 6 has been "weaponised" and referred to the case of a 70-year-old woman, who was registered twice in a span of two months, claiming there is proof of the woman or someone else in her name casting her vote twice.
Another alleged irregularity highlighted by Rahul was “bulk voters in a single address” and he claimed there were 10,452 such voters.
In a particular “single room” accommodation under Booth No 470, he said there were 80 voters while in a similar facility in Booth No 791, there were 46 voters and 68 voters in a brewery. He claimed in one locality, their team which went to cross check faced violence.
Rahul said their analysis also showed that 40,009 voters had addresses like "0" and that "does not exist or can be verified. The columns for father's or husband's names are gibberish, he added. Voters adding up to 4,132 had indistinguishable or micro-sized photos that did not allow identification, he said.