‘Vote Chori' Row: PIL in SC seeks SIT probe into Rahul Gandhi's allegations against EC

Mint

14 hours ago

A public interest litigation has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking an SIT probe into the 'vote chori' allegations made by Rahul Gandhi against the BJP and Election Commission (EC).
The PIL, filed by a lawyer, advocate Rohit Pandey, seeks directions from the Supreme Court to construct a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and look into the accusations made by the Leader of Opposition (LoP) at the Lok Sabha in recent days. Gandhi has alleged that there has been a large-scale electoral roll manipulation in Bengaluru Central and several other constituencies during Lok Sabha elections.
"Upon coming across credible revelations, including a press conference dated 07.08.2025 by the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Mr. Rahul Gandhi, alleging large-scale manipulation of genuine voters' names, and inclusion of fictitious entries in the electoral rolls of the Mahadevapura Assembly Constituency (falling within the Bengaluru Central Parliamentary Constituency), the Petitioner became gravely concerned, as such actions, if true, strike at the core of the "one person, one vote" principle enshrined under Articles 325 and 326 of the Constitution," the plea states.
The petitioner further said that upon independently verifying the authenticity of the reports cited through publicly available government data, it was found that there was sufficient prima facie material indicating that the allegations reveal a systemic attempt to dilute and distort the value of lawful votes. It therefore sought an urgent intervention from the Supreme Court.
'The allegations of dilution of the purity of electoral rolls directly undermines the constitutional vision of free and fair elections in the eyes of the community at large,' it says.
The plea also urges the SC to give directions to frame and issue binding guidelines to the Election Commission to ensure transparency, accountability and integrity in the preparation, maintenance and publication of electoral rolls, including mechanisms for detection and prevention of duplicate or fictitious entries.
It also sought a direction to the EC to publish electoral rolls in accessible, machine-readable and OCR-compliant formats to enable meaningful verification, audit and public scrutiny.