Don't pay heed: Poll body rebuts Rahul Gandhi's 'vote theft' charge

The Election Commission dismissed Rahul Gandhi's allegations of vote theft as baseless and urged officials to ignore such "irresponsible statements." Gandhi accused the poll body of aiding the BJP and called their actions "no less than treason."

In Short

• Poll body calls Rahul Gandhi's voter fraud claims baseless and irresponsible
• Rahul Gandhi accused poll body of aiding BJP in vote theft during Bihar survey
• Poll body urges officials to ignore such allegations and continue fair work

The Election Commission on Friday issued a sharp rebuttal to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s explosive allegations of large-scale voter fraud, calling his claims “baseless” and “irresponsible.”

Responding to Gandhi’s charges, the poll body said, “The Election Commission ignores such baseless allegations being made every day and, despite the threats being given every day, it asks all election officials who are working in a fair and transparent manner to not pay heed to such irresponsible statements.”

Rahul Gandhi, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, had earlier accused the ECI of being directly involved in vote theft. Referring to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise conducted in Bihar, Gandhi alleged that the Commission's actions were aimed at benefiting the ruling BJP.

“Votes are being stolen. We have open-and-shut proof that the Election Commission is involved in this vote theft. I’m not saying this lightly. I’m speaking with 100 percent proof. And when we release it (proof), the entire country will come to know that the Election Commission is enabling vote theft. And who are they doing it for? They’re doing it for the BJP,” he told reporters.

The Congress leader claimed his party had carried out an independent investigation into the matter after suspecting voter fraud and receiving no cooperation from the Election Commission.

“We had suspicion of voter theft, and we got into its granularity. Since the Election Commission was not helpful in the investigation, we did our own. It took six months and the things we found are an ‘Atom Bomb’ and when this atom bomb explodes you won’t see an Election Commission in the country,” Gandhi said.

- Ends
(with inputs from ANI)