Congress MP and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Monday insisted that he need not sign any oath to submit proofs to the Election Commission of the “vote theft” that he has alleged. “Arey bhai, unhi ka data hai (It is their own data),” he told reporters outside Parliament after Opposition MPs from the Congress-led INDIA bloc attempted to march to the EC office in Delhi.
Asked about the notices issued to him by the poll panel, Rahul Gandhi said, “It is not my data that I will sign any affidavit. They (EC) can put that data into their own website and get to know the details. All this is just to distract from the issue. And, let me tell you, this (vote fraud) is not limited to Bangalore (Central seat); it has happened in many other constituencies too.”
About the INDIA bloc protest having been thwarted, and the EC’s proposal later to meet a delegation of 30 MPs over the issue, Gandhi said, “Hindustan ki democracy ki haalat dekhiye (See the condition of India’s democracy)! Three-hundred MPs wanted to meet the Election Commission to present a document, but they were not allowed to. The EC is scared: What if 300 MPs come and their truth is revealed!”
He said the fight is not political anymore: “This is for the Constitution and for One Man One Vote.” He again cited what he termed a clear example from Karnataka.
Stressing that the entire opposition is together in it, he added, “It will be very difficult for the Election Commission to hide now.”
He later posted on X a note of gratitude to all fellow INDIA bloc MPs “for standing shoulder to shoulder and fighting with full strength in this movement against vote theft”.
Earlier, chaos broke out during the INDIA bloc’s protest march as Delhi Police stopped the leaders not far from Parliament. Rahul Gandhi and his sister and fellow Lok Sabha member Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were among those detained, as was Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav, who was seen jumping over a barricade.
Delhi Police had stated that no permission was requested for the march.
The march was a protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar and the allegations of voter fraud during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections levelled by Rahul Gandhi in a livecast and press conference last week.
