Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday backed Rahul Gandhi’s ‘vote chori’ charges, asserting that the issue raised by the Lok Sabha LoP was serious and the Election Commission should address them.
Accusing the Election Commission of India (ECI) of "criminal fraud" and collusion with the BJP to manipulate elections, Gandhi on Thursday alleged widespread irregularities in voter lists during both central and state elections.
“These are serious questions which must be seriously addressed in the interests of all parties & all voters. Our democracy is too precious to allow its credibility to be destroyed by incompetence, carelessness or worse, deliberate tampering. @ECISVEEP must urgently act & @SpokespersonECI should keep the nation informed,” Tharoor posted on X with a video of Rahul Gandhi providing insights into alleged manipulations.
Tharoor’s difference with Congress
The Congress high command has long viewed Shashi Tharoor with suspicion for his repeated praise of the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on various occasions. Tensions became more apparent when the Thiruvananthapuram MP openly lauded PM Modi for Operation Sindoor, even as the party continued to question the government over the ceasefire and Donald Trump’s claim of brokering the truce. However, in a rare shift, Tharoor has now aligned with the party in its criticism of the government.
Rahul Gandhi’s ‘atom bomb' evidence against EC
At a press conference lasting over an hour, Rahul Gandhi leveled a series of serious allegations against the Election Commission, claiming to present “evidence” to back his charges. Gandhi shared multiple presentations, asserting that the Congress party had manually analysed the voter list and found several discrepancies.
He alleged that fake voters were created by duplicating names, using invalid addresses and attaching invalid photographs.
Citing a specific instance, Gandhi claimed that 100,250 votes were “stolen” in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment of the Bangalore Central Parliamentary constituency.
According to him, the Form 6 applications, which are meant for new voter registrations, contained hardly any entries from the 18–23 age group. Instead, the entries were dominated by individuals listed as being in their 50s and even 90s.
