Rahul Gandhi cited evidence from a Karnataka constituency to allege voter list manipulation, claiming it was part of a deliberate strategy to steal the mandate in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
BY Navin Upadhyay
New Delhi, August 7 — In a dramatic press conference held in Delhi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi made explosive claims that the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were rigged in favour of the BJP through manipulation of electoral rolls. Describing the revelations as an “atom bomb,” Gandhi presented what he said was documentary evidence from Mahadevapura assembly segment of the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency, calling it a case of “bhayankar chori” (massive theft) of votes.
Citing internal research conducted by the Congress party, Gandhi claimed that out of 6.5 lakh registered voters in Mahadevapura, over one lakh were either duplicate entries, voters with invalid addresses, or bulk registrations—raising serious questions about the integrity of the electoral process.
“This is not a small discrepancy. We found more than one lakh suspicious entries in just one segment,” Gandhi said at the press conference.
The Bangalore Central seat witnessed a tightly fought contest in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Congress candidate Mansoor Ali Khan led through much of the counting day, but eventually lost to BJP’s P.C. Mohan by a narrow margin of 32,707 votes.
According to Rahul, the voters list in the said constituency had been deliberately manipulated to either delete genuine voters or include fake entries, disproportionately benefiting the ruling party. He alleged the Election Commission was complicit or negligent in allowing the fraud to occur.
“This is just the beginning. We have proof, and we will place it before the people. Democracy has been murdered,” Gandhi said, adding that further revelations would follow.
LIVE: Press Conference – #VoteChori | Indira Bhawan, New Delhi https://t.co/BlZwacZpto
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 7, 2025
“This is not a small issue. This is an attack on Indian democracy,” Rahul said, holding up pages of documents that he claimed showed names deleted, fake entries inserted, and systematic tampering aimed at tilting the outcome in the BJP’s favour,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi said the Congress party had conducted a detailed analysis of the voters list in the unnamed constituency and found thousands of anomalies. “We have identified patterns—entire blocks of voters removed, duplicate entries created, and many names shifted without any voter knowledge. This was not a clerical error. This was intentional,” he declared.
He referred to the exposé as an “atom bomb” he had been warning about for days, adding that today’s revelations were “just the beginning.” He said the party would be releasing evidence from more constituencies in the coming days.
महादेवपुरा में इस तरह से 100250 वोट की चोरी हुई
सोचिए कितना खतरनाक खेल हुआ है।
Duplicate voters: 11965
Fake Invalid Voters:40009
Bulk Voters in Single Address: 10452
Invalid Photo : 4132
Misuse of Form 6 : 33692
#VoteChori pic.twitter.com/3HVT54qiXI
— I.N.D.I.A गठबन्धन (@savedemocracyI) August 7, 2025
Gandhi directly accused the Election Commission of failing in its constitutional duty. “The Election Commission cannot escape accountability. This level of fraud cannot happen without complicity or criminal negligence,” he said.
The press conference comes at a time when the opposition bloc INDIA is sharpening its attacks on the BJP-led government, especially over concerns related to electoral transparency and democratic institutions.
Rahul Gandhi’s Specific Allegations Against the Election Commission
. Refusal to Share Voter List Data
Gandhi alleged that the Election Commission denied access to the full and updated voter lists, preventing parties from verifying voter identities and flagging duplicates.
2. Destruction of CCTV Footage
He claimed the EC took the shocking decision to destroy polling booth CCTV footage in Maharashtra, even as concerns were raised about a suspicious surge in votes after 5:30 PM.
3. Use of Non-Machine-Readable Documents
According to Gandhi, the EC deliberately shared voter rolls in a format that does not support Optical Character Recognition (OCR), making it impossible to analyse large data sets digitally and quickly.
4. One Crore New Voters Added in Maharashtra
He highlighted that between the state assembly and Lok Sabha elections, over one crore new voters were added in Maharashtra—without adequate explanation—calling it an “engineered” expansion.
5. Sudden Voting Pattern Reversals
Gandhi pointed out implausible swings in election outcomes, where alliances that lost heavily in Vidhan Sabha polls went on to sweep the Lok Sabha elections, raising questions about data manipulation.
6. Alleged EC-BJP Collusion
He said there was “reasonable certainty” that the Election Commission was working in tandem with the BJP to manipulate electoral outcomes.
7. Massive Voter Fraud in Karnataka’s Mahadevapura Segment
Gandhi specifically cited Mahadevapura, part of the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat, where he claimed over 1 lakh fake, duplicate, or invalid entries were found among 6.5 lakh voters.
He alleged that these included:
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Duplicate voters listed multiple times
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Voters with invalid or unverifiable addresses
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Bulk voters registered in clusters
8. Suspicious Addition of Voters Across Karnataka
He said the Congress’s internal analysis revealed a pattern of sudden, bulk additions of voters in multiple constituencies across Karnataka, often in BJP-stronghold segments.
He claimed these additions were strategically timed and often lacked proper verification, calling them part of an orchestrated plan to “steal” close contests.
