India News : Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has been continuously accusing the Election Commission of vote theft. In response, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has once again firmly reiterated its stance, stating that Rahul Gandhi must either submit a declaration as per the rules or apologize to the nation for his baseless allegations. The ECI had previously labeled the Leader of Opposition’s statements as misleading.
ECI Fact Check clarified that during the preparation of the electoral roll for Lok Sabha 2024, hardly any appeals were filed by the Congress under Section 24 of the RP Act, 1950 across all 36 states and union territories. Despite this, Rahul Gandhi has been making several public allegations, which have also been picked up by media outlets, even though he has never submitted a written complaint.
The ECI added that Rahul Gandhi never personally sent a self-signed letter in the past either. For instance, in December 2024, he raised the issue of Maharashtra. Following that, a lawyer from the All India Congress Committee wrote to the ECI. The ECI’s response dated December 24, 2024, is publicly available on its website. Still, Rahul Gandhi claims the Commission never responded.
On social media platform X, ECI Fact Check also mentioned that Congress’s petition to provide machine-readable voter lists was rejected by the Supreme Court in Kamal Nath vs. Election Commission, 2019. Any aggrieved candidate can file an election petition (EP) in the relevant High Court within 45 days to challenge the result. If such a petition is filed, the CCTV footage is preserved. Otherwise, preserving it serves no purpose unless someone intends to breach voter privacy.
For instance, reviewing footage from 100,000 polling stations would take around 100,000 days, or nearly 273 years, making it practically impossible and legally meaningless.
The ECI stated that if Rahul Gandhi genuinely believes in his analysis and the validity of his accusations against election officials, he should have no issue submitting specific objections under Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, and signing a declaration or affidavit.
Failure to do so would suggest he lacks confidence in his own claims and is making unfounded accusations. In such a case, the Commission says, he should apologize to the nation.
