'Elections are choreographed': Rahul Gandhi brings up poll issues, says 'Maharashtra election was stolen'; EC responds

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. (File photo)

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, on Thursday, addressed a media presser and brought up the election issues. He said that elections in India are choreographed nowadays and that Maharshtra elections were stolen.

"There is always a reason given for this lack of anti-incumbency, for this shift suddenly from these opinion polls, and the reasons are multiple - Ladli Behna, Pulwama, now Sindoor (Operation Sindoor)," he said.

"So we saw this pattern and then, of course, the most fundamental thing, that elections are choreographed. There was a time in India when there were no electronic voting machines; it was individual voting. The whole country used to vote on the same day. But in today's time, in UP there is different voting, sometimes in Bihar, sometimes for months. And this was something that we were suspicious about, for months, why is it taking so long? And why is there choreography? Why is it taking so long?" Gandhi added.

Further, adding about "voter theft", he said, "In Maharashtra, the addition of more voters in 5 months than in 5 years raised our suspicions and then a huge jump in voter turnout after 5 pm. In Vidhan Sabha, our alliance was wiped and in Lok Sabha, our alliance sweeps. Very suspicious," he said.

"We found that between Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha, one crore new voters came into the game. We went to the election commission and wrote this article, and the crux of our argument was that the Maharashtra election was stolen. What is the crux of the problem? Voterlist is the property of this country," he added.

The Congress leader further said, "The Election Commission refuses to give us the Voterlist...And then something very interesting they did. They said we are going to destroy the CCTV footage. This was surprising to us because there was a question in Maharashtra about a massive voting after 5.30 PM for the numbers to add up. Our people knew that in the polling booths, no such thing happened. There was no massive voting after 5.30 pm. These two things made us believe with reasonable certainty that the Election Commission of India was colluding with the BJP to steal elections."

The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha also claimed there was "bhayankar chori" (massive theft) of votes in the Mahadevapura assembly segment of Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat.

After this, Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka wrote a letter to Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi. The letter said, "... It is understood that during a Press Conference held today, you had mentioned about the inclusion of ineligible electors and exclusion of eligible electors in the Electoral Rolls cited at Para 3. You are kindly requested to sign and return the enclosed Declaration/Oath under Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, along with the name(s) of such elector(s) so that necessary proceedings can be initiated."

Office of Chief Electoral Officer, Maharashtra also wrote to Lok Sabha LoP and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi. "As far as the conduct of elections is concerned, election results can be questioned only by a way of Election Petition before High Court. It is understood that during a Press Conference held today, you had mentioned about the inclusion of ineligible electors and exclusion of eligible electors in the Electoral Rolls. You are requested to sign and return the enclosed Declaration/Oath so that necessary proceedings can be initiated," the letter said.