After the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Karnataka issued a notice to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to “provide” relevant documents over his “vote chori” (vote theft) allegations during a presser last week in New Delhi, a former IAS officer has strongly criticised the move. Dr PV Ramesh not only called out V Anbukkumar for issuing the notice but also alleged that the IA officer was acting at the behest of, what he called, “ECI masters”.
Dr Ramesh also said that ECI should have taken suo motu cognisance of Rahul Gandhi’s “vote chori” allegations instead of “trolling, taunting, obfuscating and obstructing” him.
‘IAS reduced to a puppet of ECI’
“You are a disgrace to the IAS fraternity, Karnataka CEO!” wrote Dr Ramesh on X (formerly Twitter).
He expressed, “I am deeply pained that a senior IAS officer is reduced to being a puppet of ECI masters,” before adding, “Rahul Gandhi has exposed a part of the serious systemic pathology infecting the electoral process. ECI should have taken suo motu cognisance and ordered comprehensive corrective measures.”
Dr Ramesh thinks that the Karnataka CEO has “forfeited” the trust and confidence of Indians, making himself a subject of “global laughing stock”.
“Instead, you/ECI have chosen to troll, taunt, obfuscate, and obstruct. You have forfeited the trust and confidence of this great nation and have become a global laughing stock,” he further wrote.
The former IAS officer concluded his long social media post asking, “Do you, Karnataka, feel proud that you are driving the long nail into the heart of Indian democracy?”
In a separate post, he tagged Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah and Dy CM DK Shivakumar, and urged them to withdraw the services of the IAS officer. “Withdraw the services of V Anbukkumar IAS (2004) from ECI with immediate effect if you are serious about protecting the integrity of the electoral process in Karnataka.”
He further expressed deep “shock” over how “coolly indifferent” the government is to their own leader, Rahul Gandhi.
‘Furnish documents for detailed enquiry’
On Sunday, Karnataka CEO said his office conducted initial investigations into the allegations made by Rahul Gandhi and found that Shakun Rani did not vote twice in the Lok Sabha elections from Bengaluru’s Mahadevapura constituency.
“Is ID card per do baar vote lagahai, wo jo tick hai, polling booth ke officer ki hai,” the notice also quoted Rahul Gandhi as saying.
It further directed him to furnish documents supporting his claims that any voter, including Shakun Rani, had voted twice so that the department could conduct a “detailed inquiry”.
Rahul Gandhi had alleged that 1,00,250 “fake votes” were added to the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency to help the BJP win. He also listed five methods through which fake voters were created: duplicate votes, fake and invalid addresses of voters, bulk voters in a single address, invalid photos, and misuse of Form 6.
As an example, the Congress leader cited the case of 70-year-old Shakun Rani, who allegedly appeared twice on the voter list — once as “Shakun” with “Rani” as a surname, and again as “Shakun Rani” without a surname. The second entry, he claimed, also had a zoomed-out photograph of her.
‘Shakun Rani hasn’t voted twice’
Former Mahadevapura MLA Aravind Limbavali has “rubbished” Rahul Gandhi’s claims, adding that Shakun Rani, who is from Panipat and residing at Purva Apartments, did not vote twice.
“She tries to add her name to the voters’ list with Form 6. She got no response for two months, and then she applied again. When she checked the voter list subsequently, she found her name twice in the same booth,” he said.
The BJP leader added, “When I checked the roll with my BLA – since we keep these records – we found that a person with the name Shakun Rani had voted only once. We asked her and she told us she had voted only under serial number 1228 in the voter list for booth number 341,” he said.
“Gandhi has misguided people about this person, saying she has voted twice. Who has marked her as voted twice in the same booth? It is on the BLA-marked roll of (the Congress),” he further claimed.
ECI fact checks Rahul Gandhi
ECI has fact-checked Rahul Gandhi’s “vote-chori” claims and found them, what it called, “false” and “misleading”.
The Election Commission, in a statement, said, “Rahul Gandhi is trying to evade the procedure established by Law and is trying to mislead the citizens as much as he can. If he truly believes in the list he is circulating for netizens, he should have no problem in following the legal procedure and respond to the CEO of Karnataka without waiting any further.”
It further stated that Gandhi has two options: either submit proof under oath or apologise to the nation.
“Rahul Gandhi believes in his analysis and believes that his allegations against the Election Staffs are true, he should have no problem in submitting claims and objections against specific voters and sign the Declaration/Oath as per Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960,” option “a” suggested by the ECI read.
Another option that the Election Commission gave him is: “If Rahul Gandhi does not sign the Declaration, it would mean that he does not believe in his analysis, resultant conclusions, and is making absurd allegations. In which case, he should apologise to the nation.”