Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addresses a press conference at AICC HQ in New Delhi on August 7, 2025. | Photo Credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap
Accusing the Election Commission of India (ECI) of “criminal fraud” and collusion with the BJP to steal elections, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, on Thursday (August 7, 2025) claimed that 1,00,250 “fake votes” were created in the Mahadevapura Assembly seat under the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency in order to ensure a win for the BJP.
Taking cognizance of Mr. Gandhi’s allegations of voter roll manipulations in a Karnataka Assembly seat, the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) asked him to submit his evidence under oath.
“I am a politician, what I say to the people is my word. I am saying it to the people publicly, take it as an oath. Interestingly, they haven’t denied the information,” the former Congress chief said in response.
‘Vote theft’
Earlier, Mr. Gandhi took reporters through a detailed presentation of the alleged fraud at Congress headquarters. “The Congress won all the Vidhan Sabhas [six out of seven] except Mahadevapura, where the BJP swept and secured a victory margin of 1,14,046 votes. This seat significantly contributed to their election win, and the Lok Sabha result went in their favour on that seat,” Mr. Gandhi
Mr. Gandhi listed out five different ways through which the alleged vote chori (theft) was done: duplicate voters, fake and invalid addresses, bulk voters at a single address, invalid photos, and the misuse of Form 6.
In his message to the ECI, the Congress leader said: “You are not in the business of destroying Indian democracy, you are in the business of protecting it. This is a crime that is being committed against the Indian Constitution, against the Indian flag.”
‘Criminal fraud’
The Congress leader used the alleged example of the Mahadevapura Assembly segment to double down on his earlier claim that “the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were rigged”, repeating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “needed to steal only 25 seats to remain in power in 2024”. He added: “The judiciary needs to get involved in this because the democracy that we love so much does not exist.”
“I want the nation to know that there is a huge criminal fraud being perpetrated on this country. It is being done by the Election Commission and the party in power and we have given you undoubtable proof,” Mr. Gandhi said. “If the Election Commission now does not give us electronic voter data of the last 10 to 15 years, and if it does not share the CCTV footage, they are partaking in the crime,” he added.
‘Fake addresses, duplicate voters’
Explaining how and why the Congress undertook a six-month-long investigation, he said the party’s internal survey had predicted a win in 16 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka. But when it won only nine seats, the party decided to do a deep dive into one of the seven “unexpected” losses and focussed on the Bangalore Central seat, he said.
“So, we started examining the details and discovered that approximately 1,00,250 votes were stolen in the Mahadevapura Assembly seat,” Mr. Gandhi alleged. The Congress analysis, he said, discovered 11,965 duplicate voters, 40,009 voters with fake and invalid addresses, 10,452 bulk voters or single address voters, 4,132 voters with invalid photos, and 33,692 voters who were misusing Form 6, meant for new voters.
For instance, Mr. Gandhi claimed in his presentation that Gurkeerat Singh Dang was registered as a voter in four different booths, with four separate electoral photo identity card [EPIC] numbers. Another voter, Aditya Srivastava’s name was in the rolls of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai in Maharashtra, and Bengaluru in Karnataka.
‘Submit data under oath’
Asking Mr. Gandhi to submit his evidence under oath, the Karnataka CEO said, “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.”
The U.P. CEO has denied that Mr. Srivastava was enrolled as a voter in the State, while the Maharashtra CEO also wrote to Mr. Gandhi, asking him to make his claim under oath.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis questioned why Mr. Gandhi’s figures were constantly changing. “There has been no theft of voters in Maharashtra or in the country. I think Rahul Gandhi’s brain’s chip has been stolen. The hard disk has been corrupted. That is why he has been lying, making false statements. He is stealing the people’s mandate, democracy,” he said.
“His figures keep changing every time. Last time, he claimed that 75 lakh votes increased in Maharashtra. This time, he claimed it was one crore. We have already responded to him with all the facts and figures about Maharashtra. He has still not been able to respond to them. So he is doing cover firing because he knows he is going to lose,” he said. He also asked why the Congress leader was opposing the intensive revision exercise in Bihar if he thinks that votes are being stolen.
Protest march
The Congress leader alleged that the Constitutional principle of ‘one man, one vote’ was being destroyed, and warned poll officials of the consequences of their actions.
“One day, the Opposition is going to come to power and then you [poll officials] see what we do to you; because you are attacking the foundation of what our forefathers who fought for India’s freedom built and we are not going to allow you to do that, no matter who you are,” he said.
On Friday, the Congress leadership, including party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Mr. Gandhi, will take out a protest march to the ECI office in Bengaluru.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah demanded that Mr. Modi quit on the basis of these allegations. “He must resign and dissolve the government immediately,” the CM said, in a post on X.