Karnataka CEO Seeks Proof from Rahul Gandhi Over Voters Fraud

Spread love

Shakun Rani voted only once, and the “tick-marked” document shown by Gandhi was not issued by any polling officer: CEO

By TRH State Desk

Bengaluru, August 10, 2025 — The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Karnataka has issued a notice to Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, seeking evidence to support his recent allegation of duplicate voting in the state. The move follows Gandhi’s remarks during a press conference in New Delhi on August 7, where he claimed that Election Commission data showed a woman, Shakun Rani, had voted twice.

In the notice, the CEO pointed out that Gandhi had specifically said, “This is EC data” and quoted polling officials as allegedly confirming the duplicate voting: “Es ID card per do baar vote lagahai, wo jo tick hai, polling booth ke officer kihai (This ID card voted twice in the same elections, and the ink mark is that of the polling booth official).”

However, the CEO’s preliminary inquiry found discrepancies in the claim. According to the letter, Shakun Rani stated she had voted only once, and the “tick-marked” document shown by Gandhi was not issued by any polling officer.

The CEO has asked Gandhi to provide the original documents on which he based his allegation so that a detailed inquiry can be undertaken. This development comes amid heightened political tensions over electoral integrity, with opposition parties repeatedly accusing the Election Commission of failing to prevent voter fraud—charges the poll body has consistently denied.

The Opposition bloc, the Indian National Developmental and Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) has decided to intensify protests against alleged voters’ fraud. The Opposition parties will march from parliament to the office of the Election Commission of India (ECI) in New Delhi on Monday.

Speaking at a press conference, Gandhi said the Congress launched an internal probe after party surveys projected 16 seats in Karnataka, but only nine were won. One of the most glaring discrepancies emerged from Bangalore Central, where Congress candidate Mansoor Ali Khan lost to BJP’s PC Mohan by a margin of 32,707 votes.

The Congress investigation focused on the Mahadevapura assembly segment, where “over 1.14 lakh entries in the voter list were flagged as suspicious.” Gandhi alleged that the Election Commission deliberately provided non-machine-readable lists to obstruct OCR (Optical Character Recognition)-based digital audits.

Gandhi also alleged that the party faced similar defeat in Haryana Assembly elections. “We lost Haryana elections by just eight Assembly seats. In total two crore electorate base, the total votes polled by the Congress in these eight Assembly seats were just less by 22,779 votes,” alleged Gandhi.

Follow The Raisina Hills on WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn