ECI’s complacency aiding BJP: Mansoor Ali Khan on alleged voter fraud in Mahadevapura
New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, citing Congress scrutiny of voter rolls in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment of Bangalore Central, has alleged large-scale vote theft that cost the party the seat in the 2024 general election. Congress candidate Mansoor Ali Khan, who lost to BJP’s P.C. Mohan by 32,207 votes, said he suspected electoral fraud from the day results were announced.
In an interview with Frontline’s Vikhar Ahmed Sayeed, Khan, who is the All India Congress Committee in-charge of Kerala and Lakshadweep, said there was an unusual spike in voter registrations in Mahadevapura ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, with more than 52,000 new voters added since the 2023 Assembly election. This triggered suspicion within the Congress, prompting its research department and Rahul Gandhi’s team to investigate voter roll additions nationwide, with Mahadevapura under close scrutiny. As the party’s candidate from Bangalore Central and a member of the research team, Khan joined the probe, which involved manually checking the entire voter list due to a lack of access to digital data.
Defending the delay in approaching the Election Commission of India (ECI), Khan said the team first needed evidence to substantiate its claims.
“Questions are being asked as to why we did not complain to the ECI within 45 days of the results, but this is ridiculous, as the data was unavailable for us to scrutinise and find evidence for fraud. Even though we were suspicious, how could we file a complaint without providing proof? We applied for this information under the Right to Information Act, and it took us three to four months to receive this data. In fact, the data that we received remains incomplete,” Khan said.
In the interview, published on Monday, Khan recounted the tedious process of identifying fake voters, invalid addresses, bulk registrations, invalid photographs, and misuse of Form 6, which is used to register new voters. The task involved manually matching voter slips to the rolls for Mahadevapura’s 6.5 lakh voters. “It was painstaking work. Rahul Gandhi presented this information excellently and established the anomalies in the voter list clearly,” he added.
On whether he raised the matter with the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer, Khan said the party high command was kept informed while the investigation was ongoing, after which Rahul Gandhi took it up. “The ECI can disagree with or debunk our findings, but the onus is now on them to provide a valid explanation for the anomalies we have pointed out,” he said, criticising the poll body for seeking signed affidavits and oaths from Gandhi instead of addressing the evidence. “According to me, even a single voter fraud is a major fraud. The ECI must answer these questions. Rather than attempting to defend itself, the ECI must take cognisance of this fraud,” he added.
He further stated that if the ECI fails to perform its role efficiently, it effectively aids the BJP. “This complacency of the ECI is helping the BJP. The Congress has observed this pattern in constituencies where BJP MLAs have been elected for three or four terms. The prevailing perception now is that the ECI is biased towards the ruling party (BJP), while opposition parties are bearing the brunt of it,” he said.
When asked about the BJP’s Karnataka state leadership dismissing the vote theft allegations and pointing out that the party has won all eight elections—four Assembly and four Lok Sabha—held in Mahadevapura since 2008 with steadily increasing margins, Khan responded, “If the margin of victory has continuously increased, let the BJP explain the addition of 52,000-odd new voters in just 10 months. You can compare this (with those) in other Assembly constituencies that constitute Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency and observe the massive increase.
He went on to criticise remarks by P.C. Mohan, who had described Rahul Gandhi’s allegations as an “insult to the people of Bengaluru” and to the “thousands of Hindus who voted for the BJP.” Khan called these comments an insult to the electorate and stressed that the Congress was raising ethical concerns, not communal ones. He pointed out that voters from all communities—including Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, and Muslims—had supported him, and even some Muslims had voted for Mohan and the BJP. “This is a part of the BJP’s efforts at communalising everything in India over the past 11 years. This is part of their playbook; when they don’t have answers, they polarise. The grave charges of vote theft have no communal angle to them at all,” he said.
He also questioned why the BJP was responding on behalf of the ECI, saying, “Let the ECI speak for itself. Even before the ECI responds officially, the BJP jumps in. What is the meaning of this?”
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
