The Karnataka Chief Election Officer (CEO), V Anbukumar, has served a notice to Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi over his allegations of voter fraud in the state. The CEO has asked him to provide evidence supporting his claims of malpractice during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. This follows the officer’s sharp rebuttal, giving Gandhi two choices to either substantiate his allegations with proof or issue a public apology.
The notice questioned the basis of Gandhi’s claims and questioned the source of the “EC data” he referred to. Further, there was special emphasis on Shakun Rani’s voter registration and how she reportedly voted twice, among several other such voters. Based on the EC notice, “Smt. Shakun Rani has stated that she has voted only once and not twice, as alleged by you.”
Slamming his claims further, the notice stated that an enquiry revealed that the “tick-marked document” shown by Gandhi was reportedly not a document issued by the polling officer. Thus, bashing these claims, Gandhi was urged to “provide relevant documents,” which helped in the conclusion of Shakun Rani’s false voter identity and other claims he made in the August 7 press conference.
Maharashtra, Haryana issue notice to Gandhi
Additionally, the Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra also asked Rahul Gandhi to submit a declaration regarding the ineligible electors and the exclusion of the eligible ones, within 10 days. Similarly, from Haryana, the leader of the opposition was asked to provide proof of the roll anomalies as claimed by him.
Gandhi’s fiery claims
At the press conference, Rahul Gandhi alleged that more than 100,000 votes had been “stolen” in Karnataka’s Mahadevapura during the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections. He claimed that this took place via duplicate entries, fake addresses and bulk registration from single locations. Gandhi claimed that this was all ECA data, and no denial has been issued from their end.
In a separate incident pointed out by him, Shakun Rani, a 70-year-old woman, allegedly appeared twice at the polling booth. A minute detail of separating “Shakun” and “Rani” claimed the first vote under her name and writing “Shakun Rani” with no surname, allowed her to vote the second time.
Following these controversial claims, Gandhi launched the website votechorin.in and urged citizens to join the demand for transparency. He took to X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday and said that a clean voter roll was cardinal for free and fair elections. Karnataka deputy chief minister and state Congress president DK Shivakumar also joined Gandhi in these claims.
Responding to the notice from EC, Shivakumar spoke to ANI and questioned, “Who are they to give notice? I have given them notice. We have the power to give notice. We have won the election legally. In a democracy, the elections should be held legally…”