In a press conference on Thursday, Rahul Gandhi made several wild allegations against the BJP and claimed that the election in Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency was 'stolen' by the BJP with the help of the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Reeling out a lot of selective data, Rahul Gandhi had claimed that the Congress party led in 7 out of 8 assembly constituencies under Bangalore Central Lok Sabha jurisdiction in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and the BJP had 'stolen' the election by registering 1,00,250 fake voters in Mahadevapura assembly constituency. According to Rahul Gandhi, these facts provided 'undoubtable' evidence thatthe 2024 Lok Sabha elections were rigged. And, these 'revelations' were described by Rahul Gandhi as an "atom bomb".
The so-called investigation and exposé of Rahul Gandhi about the Bangalore Central parliamentary constituency is nothing but a cruel joke. Rahul has once again resorted to blatant lies in the hope that his bluff would not be called. Alas, nobody in the media called his bluff. His blatant lies about facts largely went unnoticed.
Here is a point-wise, detailed rejoinder to Rahul Gandhi's imaginary facts about the Bangalore Central Parliamentary Consultancy election results.
Fake Claim 1
"Congress wins all the Vidhan Sabhas [in Bangalore Central Lok Sabha] except this one (Mahadevapura). And, this one (Mahadevapura assembly), the BJP sweeps and gets a margin of 1,14,046. This seat wins them the election, and the Lok Sabha goes in their favour." (at 14.52 minutes in his PC) Making this the basis, Rahul propounded a fake theory that the entire 2024 Lok Sabha election was rigged and stolen.
FACT - The claim that the Congress party had led in all assembly segments except the Mahadevapura assembly in Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency is a fraudulent claim. The fact is that the BJP led in four out of eight assembly segments under the Bangalore Central parliamentary constituency. The four segments where the BJP led are CV Raman Nagar, Gandhi Nagar, Rajaji Nagar, and Mahadevapura. The Congress party also led in four assembly segments, namely, Sarvagna Nagar, Shivaji Nagar, Shanti Nagar, and Chamarajpet. On the whole, the BJP won the parliament election by a slender margin of 32,707 votes. (Refer Table 1)
Even in the 2023 assembly elections to the Karnataka assembly, the BJP had won four and Congress won in four assembly constituencies under the Bangalore Central parliamentary constituency, and the BJP's victory margin in the Mahadevapura assembly constituency was the highest with 44,501 votes.
A question arises as to how Rahul Gandhi had claimed that his Congress party had led in 7 out of 8 assembly constituencies. Did Rahul Gandhi make these fraudulent claims on rigged elections only to make his allegations appear credible?
Fake Claim 2
"The number of registered voters in the Mahadevapura assembly constituency has gone up by stealing 1,00,250 votes by registering duplicate and fake voters in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. And, these votes were stolen in five different ways."
FACT - Rahul Gandhi's inference that registration of new, bogus voters before the 2024 Lok Sabha election gave the BJP a lead of 1.14,046 votes in the Mahadevapura assembly segment. This claim is also factually untrue as the number of registered voters in the Mahadevapura assembly constituency has gone up by 52,571 (Refer Table 3), while Rahul Gandhi claims that over 1 lakh bogus voters have been registered before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Is Rahul Gandhi even aware that all the functions relating to elections are performed by the state government employees in addition to their other responsibilities and that the Election Commission has no employees of its own at the state, district and lower levels? If he is alleging registration of fraudulent voters in the Mahadevapura assembly, should he not be blaming the incompetence or collusion by his own Congress government in Karnataka? This establishes that Rahul Gandhi's allegations are bizarre and bereft of any basis.
Fake Claim 3
"Exit polls, opinion polls say one thing (as in Haryana, MP elections) and the results go in a different direction with massive swings."
If projections by the exit polls and opinion polls are to be considered 'circumstantial evidence', going by Rahul Gandhi's warped logic, the NDA should have won a massive mandate with over 400 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. (Refer to Table 4) Not just the internal surveys of the BJP, every media organisation predicted a huge victory for the BJP and the NDA in exit polls, while the actual tally for the BJP was only 240 seats. Should this be considered an 'incontrovertible proof', as Rahul Gandhi claims, that the election was fixed by the Congress and opposition parties to deny a big mandate to the BJP?
Fake Claim 4
In his press conference, Rahul Gandhi makes it appear as if the BJP's win in Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency was a result of the unexpected, huge lead it gained in the Mahadevapura assembly in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Contrary to Rahul Gandhi's claims, the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha and Mahadevapura assembly constituencies have been BJP's strongholds and the BJP won them in every single election since these were formed after the delimitation exercise undertaken in 2008. (Refer to Tables 5 and 6)
For all these absurd claims of election fraud, lies and half-truths, Rahul Gandhi must tender an apology to the people of the country, the media and the BJP. Having repeatedly made such baseless claims on many occasions, Rahul Gandhi has only a modicum of credibility left. With absurd claims like these, Rahul Gandhi has demonstrated that he is determined to destroy whatever little is left of that.
(GVL Narasimha Rao is a former MP (Rajya Sabha), BJP and a noted poll analyst)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
