"Have 100% Proof": Rahul Gandhi Claims Poll Panel Allowed Cheating In Karnataka

The Congress has "concrete 100 per cent proof" that the Election Commission allowed cheating in a constituency in Karnataka, Rahul Gandhi claimed on Thursday and warned the poll panel that it will not get away with this "because we are going to come for you".

The Election Commission responded, saying "if an election petition has been filed, then wait for the verdict of Hon'ble High Court. If not, then why make baseless allegations now?" An election petition can be filed within 45 days after poll results are announced by anyone not satisfied with the verdict. Such petitions can be filed in high courts of the state of the constituency concerned.

Gandhi alleged that the poll panel is not functioning as the Election Commission of India and is "not doing its job".

Asked about the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav's reported remarks that the option of boycotting the Bihar assembly polls was open, Gandhi told reporters that his party has "concrete 100 per cent proof" of the EC allowing cheating in a seat in Karnataka.

"Not 90 per cent, when we decide to show it to you, it is a 100 per cent proof," the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said.

"We just looked at one constituency and we found this. I am absolutely convinced that constituency after constituency this is the drama that is taking place. Thousands and thousands of new voters, how old are they? -- 45, 50, 60, 65, thousands and thousands of them in one constituency. This is one thing, voter deletion, voter addition, new voters who are way above 18 (is going on)... so we have caught them," he said.

"I want to send a message to the Election Commission -- if you think you are going to get away with this, if your officers think they are going to get away with this, you are mistaken, you are not going to get away with this because we are going to come for you," Gandhi told reporters in Parliament House premises.

The Congress leader on Wednesday had alleged that elections are being "stolen" in India and claimed that his party has figured out the modus operandi of the "votes theft" by studying a Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka.

Gandhi said he would put before the people and the EC in black in white on how the "theft of votes" is being done.

He said it has emerged that during house-to-house visit in the ongoing revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, poll officials have so far found that more than 52 lakh voters were not present at their addresses.

The opposition has been protesting in both houses of Parliament against the revision exercise, alleging that it was aimed at disenfranchising voters in Bihar ahead of the assembly elections.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)