‘Vote chori': Karnataka CEO asks Rahul Gandhi to submit proof for allegations related to Mahadevapura
The notice was related to one of Gandhi's allegations of electoral malpractice in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment of the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency. It referred to the Congress leader's remarks that one Shakun Rani had voted twice during the Lok Sabha polls held last year.
'You have also stated that as per the records given by the polling officer, Smt. Shakun Rani has voted twice. You have said; 'Es ID card per do baar vote lagahai, wo jo tick hai, polling booth ke officer ki hai'. On inquiry, Smt. Shakun Rani has stated that she has voted only once and not twice, as alleged by you,' the notice read.
Issued by V Anbukumar, the CEO of Karnataka, it said the 'preliminary enquiry conducted by this office also reveals that the tick marked document shown by you in the presentation is not a document issued by the polling officer. Therefore, you are kindly requested to provide the relevant documents on the basis of which you have concluded that Smt. Shakun Rani or anyone else has voted twice, so that a detailed inquiry can be undertaken by this office.'
At a recent news conference, Gandhi alleged that 1,00,250 'fake votes' were created in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment in order to ensure a win for the BJP. He listed five methods in which fake voters were created to give the saffron party an edge. They included duplicate votes, fake and invalid addresses of voters, bulk voters in a single address, invalid photos, and misuse of Form 6. In a protest held at Bengaluru on August 8, he had also urged the Karnataka Government to inquire into the irregularities that allegedly took place during the 2024 polls.
Shortly after Gandhi made the allegations, the CEO had asked him to submit his complaint regarding voter roll manipulation 'under oath'.
Following a Congress protest on Friday, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar submitted a memorandum to the CEO regarding the irregularities. On Saturday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the law department would investigate the allegations and submit a report soon.
Responding to development, former Mahadevapura MLA Aravind Limbavali said that Shakun Rani was from Panipat and was living at Purva Apartments. 'She tries to add her name to the voters list with form 5. She gets no response for two months and then she applies again and when she checks the voter list subsequently, she finds her name twice in the same booth,' the BJP leader said in a statement.
Limbavali accused Gandhi of misguiding the people by alleging that Rani had voted twice.
'When I checked the roll with my BLA – since we keep these records – we found that a person with the name Shakun Rani had voted only once. We asked her and she told us she had voted only under serial number 1228 in the voter list for booth number 341,' he said.
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