Intensifying his allegations of large-scale vote manipulation, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday demanded that the Election Commission of India (ECI) immediately hand over voter lists and video recordings from the past decade.
Addressing the ‘Vote Adhikaar Rally’ in Bengaluru, Gandhi accused the BJP of working against the Constitution and reiterated that Congress and its allies were denied victory in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly polls through rigging.
“BJP’s ideology is against the Constitution of India. Every Congress leader and worker will protect it… The Election Commission should give us the voter lists and video recordings from the last 10 years, immediately,” he said.
Citing the Maharashtra elections, Gandhi claimed that while the Congress-led alliance performed strongly in the Lok Sabha polls earlier that year, the BJP swept the assembly elections just four months later under suspicious circumstances. According to him, over one crore “new voters” emerged during the state polls, with their votes overwhelmingly going to the BJP, despite Congress’s own vote count remaining stable.
He further alleged that similar discrepancies occurred in Karnataka during the last Lok Sabha elections. Internal Congress surveys had predicted wins in 15–16 seats, but the party secured only nine. Gandhi said requests for voter lists and CCTV footage from the ECI were denied, and rules regarding access to such videos were subsequently altered.
Defending the Constitution, Gandhi invoked the legacies of B.R. Ambedkar, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Basavana, Narayana Guru, and Jyotirao Phule, asserting that the right to vote is central to India’s democracy.
Meanwhile, ECI sources on Friday challenged Gandhi to sign a declaration by the Chief Electoral Officers of Maharashtra and Karnataka affirming the authenticity of voter records or apologise for what it termed “absurd” allegations. “If Rahul Gandhi believes in his analysis and that his allegations against ECI are true, he should have no problem in signing the declaration,” an ECI source said.
