Rahul Gandhi launches newsletter, steps up attack on Election Commission, BJP over 'vote theft'

Rahul Gandhi

The Congress has intensified its campaign highlighting alleged irregularities in the earlier assembly polls and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has rolled out a newsletter, reiterating his charge of alleged "vote theft" against the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre.

"The opposition leader Rahul Gandhi's campaign against 'vote theft' is exposing how the Election Commission and BJP are colluding to steal your vote and rigging the elections," Congress wrote on X while announcing the newsletter, which also includes Gandhi's "atom bomb" presser.

In his press conference held on August 7, Gandhi alleged over one lakh fake voters in the Mahadevapura assembly constituency in Karnataka's Bengaluru Central.

The newsletter also highlights Gandhi's 'Vote Adhikaar Yatra' in Bihar, where he was joined by his allies in the INDIA bloc, including Bihar LoP and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav.

Earlier in the day, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge slammed the ECI, questioning whether the poll body has become "BJP's back-office for vote theft.

In a post on X, Kharge shared a media report on the alleged EC's decision to withhold details in a probe related to voter fraud in Karnataka's Aland Constituency.

Kharge shared the chronological details of what he believed was the "massive deletion" of voters in the Aland constituency ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections in 2023.

"Is the Election Commission of India (ECI) now the BJP's back office for vote chori? Understand the chronology. Ahead of the May 2023 Karnataka elections, Congress had exposed a massive deletion of voters in the Aland Constituency. Thousands of voters were stripped of their rights through a very sophisticated operation of forging Form 7 applications," Kharge said.

"In Feb 2023, a case was filed. The probe revealed 5,994 forged applications - clear evidence of a massive attempt at voter fraud. The Congress government then ordered a CID probe to catch the culprits," he added.

With inputs from ANI