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Modi, Narendra

"Dead" Voters Gather with Rahul Gandhi, Allege Indian Election Commission Manipulation

Strategic Insights

— 1 min read

Rahul Gandhi, India's opposition leader, hosted "dead" voters at a gathering in Delhi, accusing the Election Commission of India (ECI) of manipulating voters' rolls to help Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win elections. The ECI has denied the rigging charges, but Gandhi claims that the removal of 6.5 million names from the draft electoral rolls could be used by the BJP to claim victory in upcoming polls in Bihar.

Key Takeaways:

  • At least 6.5 million Indian voters, including Ramikbal Ray and Subodh Kumar, had their names excluded from the draft electoral rolls by the ECI, alleged to be "dead" or "absent".
  • The opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, accuses the ECI of helping the BJP win elections through voter suppression.
  • Gandhi has launched a "vote adhikar yatra" (voting rights march) across Bihar to highlight his claims of voter list manipulation.
  • An internal investigation by Gandhi's party allegedly found at least 100,250 votes being "stolen" in the recent state assembly elections in Karnataka, including 11,965 duplicate voters and 40,009 voters with fake and invalid addresses.
  • Congress claims to have found 100,570 fake voters in Bengaluru Central's Mahadevpura, which is a Lok Sabha seat won by the BJP.
  • The ECI has defended its revision process, saying it is a transparent process aimed at preparing a pure voters' list.

Statistics:

  • 6.5 million voters had their names excluded from the draft electoral rolls by the ECI.
  • 100,250 votes were allegedly "stolen" in the recent state assembly elections in Karnataka, according to an internal investigation by Gandhi's party.
  • 120,450 fake and duplicate voters were allegedly found, including 11,965 duplicate voters and 40,009 voters with fake and invalid addresses.
  • 100,570 fake voters were allegedly found in Bengaluru Central's Mahadevpura.
  • The ECI revised 78.9 million registered voters in Bihar in a door-to-door verification drive between 25 June and 26 July.

Sources:

  • The Independent
  • The Hindu newspaper
  • Official Election Commission of India (ECI) news archive

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