"Defeated By Fraud In 1991": Siddaramaiah's 'Vote Chori' Check For Congress

The Congress - which has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party and Election Commission of 'collusion' to commit voter fraud before the Bihar election - faced an internal check on those protests Friday after Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said 'fraud' lost him the 1991 Lok Sabha election.

Thirty-four years ago Siddaramaiah was the Janata Dal Secular candidate from Koppal in northern Karnataka. He was up against the incumbent, Basavaraj Patil Anwari, who won the seat in the 1989 election on a JDS ticket and then jumped to the Congress for the 1991 poll.

Anwari was credited with 2.41 lakh votes and a victory margin of less than 11,200.

Siddaramaiah later filed a case in the Karnataka High Court questioning the counting officials' decision to reject 22,243 votes. He claimed he would have won a majority of those votes.

The now-Congress leader also claimed Anwari's candidature was illegal because he had been disqualified from the earlier Lok Sabha by the Speaker on grounds of defection. That, he argued, meant Basavaraj Anwari was "permanently disqualified" from membership of the Lower House.

In an (unfortunate, perhaps, in hindsight) reference to that episode at an event in Bengaluru, to felicitate former Karnataka Advocate General Ravivarma Kumar, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, "I seek guidance from Ravivarma Kumar whenever I face legal hurdles. In 1991, I contested the election and was defeated by fraud. Then Ravivarma Kumar helped me..."

The BJP - under the cosh from the Congress and other members of the INDIA opposition bloc, over 'voter fraud' in last year's Karnataka and Maharashtra elections and plans for something similar in Bihar, via the 'special intensive revision' - pounced on Siddaramaiah's remark.

In a series of posts on X Amit Malviya poured scorn on the Congress, "This video is proof - the same man who once fought against Congress' 'vote chori' is today their Chief Minister and is leading a 'Vote Adhikar' rally. The irony is so thick... it is not lost on the people of Bharat."

Watch: Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah himself admits he was a victim of “electoral fraud” by the Congress party in the 1991 Koppal Lok Sabha polls. He clearly says he was defeated “ಮೋಸದಿಂದ / Mōsadinda” (by cheating).

This video is proof—the same man who once fought against Congress's… https://t.co/Y2cNGS8hPT pic.twitter.com/0Hlkwlm59N

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) August 29, 2025

"Back then, he (Siddaramaiah) cried 'vote chori' because he lost on ballot papers. Today, Rahul Gandhi is crying wolf about 'electoral fraud'... only because the people of India have decisively thrown the Congress out of power through the democratic process and un-hackable EVMs."

Amit Malviya's tweet on Siddaramiah's 1991 election claim. Photo posted on X by @amitmalviya

The BJP's R Ashoka, the Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly, accused the Congress of having "deceitfully defeated" Siddaramaiah and also dug out another, potentially damaging, statement, this time by former Congress leader CM Ibrahim.

Now with the JDS, he had accused the Congress of having 'bought' 3,000 votes for the 2018 Assembly election. The votes, he alleged, were from the Badami seat that Siddaramaiah won.

The margin to second-placed B Sriramulu of the BJP was less than 2,000 votes. And last week BJP MP, Lahar Singh Siroya, demanded the Election Commission investigate Ibrahim's claim.

The Congress, meanwhile, has played down Siddaramaiah's comments.

"The BJP is unnecessarily raising something that happened 30 years ago to defend themselves," Shivajinagar MLA Rizwan Arshad said. "Siddaramaiah is talking about issues between then MLAs of the JDS. But now the Election Commission is controlled by the BJP."

All of this comes at a bad time for the Congress as it looks to ramp up pressure on the BJP and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United before an election likely in November.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav are headlining a 'Vote Adhikar' cross-state rally, at which multiple opposition leaders, including Siddaramaiah have made speeches.

READ | 'My Brother Rajiv Gandhi...': BJP Mocks MK Stalin's Faux Pas, DMK's 'Patch'

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and his Telangana counterpart, Revanth Reddy, have also made appearances, and made speeches targeting the BJP and EC over the Bihar voter list row.

With input from agencies

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