Leader of Opposition in Loksabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi seems to have opened a can of worms with his explosive allegations against the apex poll body – Election Commission of India. Last week, Mr. Gandhi claimed during a press conference that the Election Commission has colluded with the BJP in tinkering the 2024 General Elections of India to favour the results in several constituencies all over the country. He alleged that more than 1 lakh fake votes were created in the Mahadevapura assembly segment under Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency. He also claimed that many voters were registered twice or more illegally and anonymous persons might have cast votes with fake ID cards.
The Election Commission quickly started fact checking of Rahul Gandhi’s claims on vote theft and immediately countered him with vaild documentary proofs available on record. The ECI refuted his allegations and asked him to either sign the declaration of oath and submit tangible evidence for his claims or apologise for making baseless accusations. It also questioned why no formal complaint had been filed so far over his claims if he had adequate proofs to corroborate his allegations.
The poll body denied the claims that some fake voters exercised their adult franchise twice and sent notices to Gandhi and requested him to provide the relevant documents on the basis of which he made the claim that a particular voter named Shakun Rani or anyone else voted twice. The ECI also clarified that the document referred by Rahul Gandhi during his press meet was not an official document released by polling officer.
On Sunday, the ECI also trashed Rahul’s allegation that Shakun Rani voted twice after doing necessary inquires at its level and strongly asserted that she voted only once. As the burden of proof lies on the person who claims to have known something illegal was committed, it is binding on him to provide necessary proofs to substantiate his allegations. Now, Rahul Gandhi finds himself in a tight spot to prove his allegations with credible information and documents or else he will need to face a strong backlash for his remarks on the largest election body of the world.
