Rahul Gandhi has evidence for his 'votes theft' allegations Siddaramaiah

 Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has got evidence for his allegation regarding the modus operandi for "votes theft" during Lok Sabha polls in the state last year. Amid the raging row over the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, Gandhi on July 23 had alleged that elections are being "stolen" in the country and claimed his party has figured out the modus operandi of the "votes theft" by studying a Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka.

Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha is scheduled to participate in a protest in Bengaluru on August 5 and submit a representation to the Election Commission officials here in this connection. "Rahul Gandhi has got evidence. He is coming here to protest and to meet the Election Commission officials in Karnataka," the CM said in response to a question about the top Congress leader having evidence or documents to back his claims.

Speaking to reporters here, he said the nature of the protest meet and the venue will be decided soon. Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who is also the state Congress President, has said the venue for the protest and nature of the event -- whether rally or protest or march -- will be decided after a meeting on Thursday citing "technical issues" and court directives for holding such events in the city.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Shivakumar said Rahul has done research on "votes theft" and he is not coming to Bengaluru just for a political purpose. He wants to educate the people of the country and Karnataka on what happened during parliament polls. "We (Congress) might have lost or won elections, but we want to save democracy. We don't want the Election Commission to be part of a political process," he said.

Responding to the BJP questioning about "votes theft" issue being raised when Karnataka has voted Congress to power in the state, Shivakumar said, "Why are they (BJP) worrying about our political agenda? It is our political agenda. We need not answer them. We are answerable to the people of Karnataka."

Alleging BJP of having indulged in "fraud", he said, "We will expose them. Even during the Assembly election (2023) how they misused...we will place things before the people. My leader (Rahul Gandhi) will come and explain. I don't want to come out with details now. We have done research. We are not sitting quite."

Last week, Gandhi said he would put before the people and the Election Commission in black in white on how the "theft of votes" is being done. "In Karnataka, we have found bhayankar chori (massive theft). I will show it in black and white to you and the Election Commission. I will show in black and white how the chori is done and from where. We have it in black and white in Karnataka," the former Congress president had said.

"They know that we have understood their game. We picked one constituency and did a deep dive. Problem is that they give a voters list on paper and the paper list cannot be analysed. We took the full voters list of one constituency. We put it on digital format. It took six months, but we have uncovered their whole system. How they do it, who votes and from where new voters are brought," he said.

Following Gandhi's statement, Siddaramaiah too had earlier alleged that the Congress party's setback in the Lok Sabha polls in the state was due to "illegal manipulation" of the electoral process by the BJP through its 'misuse' of the EC, and the discussions were on with his party high command to decide the necessary course of action.

He claimed that in several constituencies across the state, Congress workers reported sudden and suspicious additions of new voters, while names of long-time voters were removed without justification. (PTI)