K’taka family declared ‘fake’ voters by Rahul Gandhi found to be genuine in preliminary EC probe
Bengaluru: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s claim about a family of voters being fake has turned out to be false. Preliminary verification by the Election Commission in Bengaluru has confirmed that the individuals in question are genuine voters, sources revealed on Friday.
Rahul Gandhi had alleged that a family of three — one male and two females — were fake voters based on the fact that he was unable to view their photographs. However, images of the three individuals, along with their GPS-tagged address, have since surfaced on social media.
The photograph shows the family members displaying their Voter ID cards at their residence located on 2nd Main, JCR Layout, Panthur, near Kadubeesanahalli in Bengaluru. The three members of the family are Om Prakash Bagri, Saraswati Devi Bagri, and Mala Bagri, the ECI sources said.
Sources said the reason the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Karnataka asked Rahul Gandhi to personally submit an affidavit was due to his previous tendency to disown the allegations he made against the Election Commission of India (ECI).
“The reason for asking for a declaration this time is that in the past, he has never submitted any self-signed letter. Whatever reply we provide is sent to some other entity, and each time he disowns it,” the sources stated.
Officials from the ECI also pointed out that Rahul Gandhi had referred to the Maharashtra issue on December 24, 2024. “An advocate from AICC wrote to us, and we issued a detailed reply on December 24, 2024. That reply is publicly available on our website. Yet, Rahul Gandhi claims that we never responded. Even yesterday, he repeated the same allegation,” the sources explained.
The ECI sources further noted that on Thursday (August 7), the Karnataka government decided to use the electoral roll as the base for conducting the caste survey. Ironically, on the same day, Rahul Gandhi launched a scathing attack on the credibility of the electoral rolls.
While the Congress-led Karnataka government vouched for the authenticity of the electoral rolls by basing its most important policy — the caste census — on them, Rahul Gandhi simultaneously questioned their integrity, the ECI sources pointed out.
Rahul Gandhi held a press conference on Thursday in Delhi, making serious charges regarding committing election fraud. He gave the example of the Mahadevapura Assembly segment in Bengaluru.
The Congress leader also addressed the huge protest in Bengaluru, reiterating his charges demanding 10 years of data regarding the voters and also videos. “Otherwise, you are hiding a crime. If you (ECI) attack ‘One Man One Vote’ right, we will attack you,” Rahul Gandhi warned.
