Gandhi alleged that the EC and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had worked together to manipulate voter rolls and hide evidence of large-scale irregularities in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress leader was addressing supporters and party workers at the ‘Vote Adhikar Rally’ in Bengaluru.

“The Election Commission is asking me to submit an affidavit and give information under oath. But I have already taken an oath inside Parliament while holding the Constitution,” Gandhi told the crowd, accusing the poll body of withholding crucial records, including booth-level videography and electronic voter lists. He claimed these records were deliberately kept from scrutiny to cover up wrongdoing during the polls.

“The EC and BJP together have stolen the Lok Sabha from Karnataka,” he alleged, adding that voter roll websites in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Bihar were taken down to prevent public scrutiny. He said repeated requests for polling booth videos and electronic rolls were rejected and that the law was later amended to require videos be erased after 45 days.

Gandhi linked his allegations to an internal Congress survey before the general elections, which had predicted a lead in 16 Karnataka seats but ended with the party winning just nine. He listed five ways in which the alleged fraud took place: creation of duplicate voters, fake or invalid addresses, bulk registrations at single addresses, unclear photographs, and misuse of Form 6 meant for first-time voters.

Releasing findings from a party probe into Mahadevapura Assembly constituency under the Bengaluru Central seat, Gandhi said there was “100% proof” that one lakh votes had been “stolen.” According to him, some voters were registered in multiple states and “authorised to cast ballots” in more than one location. “Our research in the last six months by tallying every voter identity photo with lakhs of photographs has shown fake and invalid addresses have been created,” he said.

He demanded that the EC release electronic voter lists and polling-day videography for the past decade across the country, claiming such disclosure would reveal “the Prime Minister of India became PM by stealing votes.”

Gandhi called the alleged manipulation “a criminal act against the people of Karnataka” and urged the state government to investigate EC officials who, he alleged, inserted thousands of fake names into the rolls. “You cannot hide evidence. You will have to face the opposition,” he said.

Gandhi also alleged that a similar pattern had occurred in Maharashtra, where the BJP won the Assembly elections just four months after the Lok Sabha polls. “We discovered that 1 crore new voters, who had not participated in the Lok Sabha polls, cast their votes in the Maharashtra Assembly election,” he claimed, saying these votes “primarily went to the BJP,” and that “wherever these new voters cast their ballots, the BJP won.”

Chief minister Siddaramaiah echoed Gandhi’s charges, demanding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resignation. “He has no moral right to continue in his post. Rahul Gandhi’s ‘vote fraud’ expose has shown that he has stolen seats to remain in power,” he said.

Deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar said Gandhi wanted ‘legal banks’ to be established to protect voters’ rights at the booth level, assuring that such a mechanism would be set up on the lines of blood banks.

BJP state president BY Vijayendra dismissed the allegations, calling Gandhi a “desperate leader” who had failed to earn the public’s trust. “I pity Rahul Gandhi. He is a desperate leader who has failed continuously to gain the confidence of the people of this country… Failed Rahul Gandhi has alleged malpractices and blamed the Election Commission,” he said.

He also cited a past incident when Mamata Banerjee, as an MP, was suspended from Parliament for alleging that thousands of illegal Bangladeshi migrants had been added to voter rolls in Bihar, saying the Congress was now “following the same path.”