Unconstitutional: Plea in Supreme Court challenges Congress's 'vote chori' claims

A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court against the Congress party and its leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge over their recent "vote chori" campaign.

The petition, moved by a member of the All India Hindu Mahasabha through advocate Rohit Pandey, alleges that the campaign is unconstitutional, politically motivated, and aimed at undermining the authority of the Election Commission of India (ECI).

It seeks the deregistration of Congress as a political party and a probe into alleged manipulation of voter rolls in Bengaluru Central and other constituencies.

The plea specifically refers to Rahul Gandhi’s August 7 press conference where he accused the BJP and the poll panel of colluding to commit a "huge criminal fraud" in voter lists. Gandhi had described "vote chori" (vote theft) as an "atom bomb on our democracy" and cited data from Karnataka to back his claim.

Soon after, the Chief Electoral Officers of Karnataka and Maharashtra asked Gandhi to provide names of electors he believed were wrongly listed along with a signed declaration so that corrective steps could be taken.

On August 17, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar also warned that Gandhi’s claims would remain "baseless and invalid" unless he submitted evidence under oath.

The petition contends that Congress’ campaign is a deliberate propaganda effort designed to weaken trust in democratic institutions.

It has also urged the court to form a special investigation team headed by a retired judge to probe electoral roll manipulation, and to stop any further revision or finalisation of rolls until an independent audit is completed.

Pointing to alleged discrepancies, the plea cites that nearly 39 lakh new voters were added to Maharashtra’s rolls in just four months between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, compared to about 50 lakh in the preceding five years. It argues that such a sudden spike raises doubts about the transparency of the process.

The petitioner has also asked the top court to direct the ECI to make electoral rolls available in machine-readable and OCR-compliant formats for public scrutiny, saying this is vital to ensure "transparency, accountability and integrity" in elections.

The case is expected to test the balance between free political speech and the protection of institutions central to India’s democracy.

- Ends

With PTI inputs

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