Have 100% proof of EC allowing cheating in one Karnataka seat: Rahul Gandhi

Agencies
July 24, 2025

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New Delhi, July 24: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said his party has “concrete 100 per cent proof” of the Election Commission allowed cheating in a constituency in Karnataka and asserted that the poll watchdog would be mistaken if it thinks that it is going to get away with this “because we are going to come for you”.

Gandhi alleged that the Election Commission is not functioning as the Election Commission of India, and is “not doing its job”.

Asked about the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav’s reported remarks that the option of boycotting Bihar assembly polls was open, Gandhi told reporters that his party has “concrete 100 per cent proof” of the Election Commission allowing cheating in a seat in Karnataka.

“Not 90 per cent, when we decide to show it to you, it is a 100 per cent proof,” the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said.

“We just looked at one constituency and we found this. I am absolutely convinced that constituency after constituency this is the drama that is taking place. Thousands and thousands of new voters, how old are they? — 45, 50, 60, 65, thousands and thousands of them in one constituency. This is one thing, voter deletion, voter addition, new voters who are way above 18 (is going on)… so we have caught them,” he said.

“I want to send a message to the Election Commission — if you thing you are going to get away with this, if your officers think they are going to get away with this, you are mistaken, you are not going to get away with this because we are going to come for you,” Gandhi told reporters in Parliament House premises.

The Congress leader on Wednesday alleged that elections are being “stolen” in India and claimed that his party has figured out the modus operandi of the “votes theft” by studying a Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka.

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.

His remarks came after it emerged that during house-to-house visit in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll in Bihar, poll officials have so far found that more than 52 lakh voters were not present at their addresses.

The opposition has been protesting in both houses of Parliament against the SIR, alleging that the EC’s exercise was aimed at disenfranchising voters in Bihar ahead of the assembly elections.

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News Network
January 23,2026

Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot read only three lines from the 122-paragraph address prepared by the Congress-led state government while addressing the joint session of the Legislature on Thursday, effectively bypassing large sections critical of the BJP-led Union government.

The omitted portions of the customary Governor’s address outlined what the state government described as a “suppressive situation in economic and policy matters” under India’s federal framework. The speech also sharply criticised the Centre’s move to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, commonly referred to as the VB-GRAM (G) Act.

Governor Gehlot had earlier conveyed his objection to several paragraphs that were explicitly critical of the Union government. On Thursday, he confined himself to the opening lines — “I extend a warm welcome to all of you to the joint session of the State legislature. I am extremely pleased to address this august House” — before jumping directly to the concluding sentence of the final paragraph.

He ended the address by reading the last line of paragraph 122: “Overall, my government is firmly committed to doubling the pace of the State’s economic, social and physical development. Jai Hind — Jai Karnataka.”

According to the prepared speech, the Karnataka government demanded the scrapping of the VB-GRAM (G) Act, describing it as “contractor-centric” and detrimental to rural livelihoods, and called for the full restoration of MGNREGA. The state government argued that the new law undermines decentralisation, weakens labour protections, and centralises decision-making in violation of constitutional norms.

Key points from the unread sections of the speech:

•    Karnataka facing a “suppressive” economic and policy environment within the federal system

•    Repeal of MGNREGA described as a blow to rural livelihoods

•    VB-GRAM (G) Act accused of protecting corporate and contractor interests

•    New law alleged to weaken decentralised governance

•    Decision-making said to be imposed by the Centre without consulting states

•    Rights of Adivasis, women, backward classes and agrarian communities curtailed

•    Labourers allegedly placed under contractor control

•    States facing mounting fiscal stress due to central policies

•    VB-GRAM (G) Act accused of enabling large-scale corruption

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