Priyank flags more cases of ‘vote theft’

Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge flagged more instances of alleged “vote fraud” in the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, had earlier alleged widespread voter manipulation during the 2024 parliamentary elections, citing data from Mahadevapura that falls in the Bengaluru Central LS constituency.

On Wednesday, Mr. Kharge showed instances where, allegedly, wedding cards, Aadhaar cards without proper addresses, Transfer Certificates (TCs), Comed-K hall tickets, which are not among the documents that can be submitted for a verifiable, valid address proof that the Election Commission mandates, were used to register voters in the constituency.

He expressed suspicion that fake Aadhaar cards were also being generated to register fake voters. He further illustrated two examples where one Gurukreet Singh Dang was given four EPIC cards in different booths and Sonal Awasthi was given five EPIC cards in the same booth.

Mr. Kharge further said that during the counting for Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha seat in 2024, the Congress candidate had a lead of nearly 75,000-80,000 till the Mahadevapura Assembly seat was counted, and in that one seat, the BJP candidate got a lead of 1.14 lakh votes, eventually defeating the Congress candidate, which was suspicious.

He further argued that, as per ECI norms, in any constituency, if there is an addition of over 4% to the electoral rolls, there has to be an on-ground verification. “But in the case of Mahadevapura between just 2023 and 2024, around 52,000 voters, which 8.6% were added to the list,” he said, asking ECI whether an on-ground verification was indeed done as per the manual.