'Sign the declaration or apologise': EC counters Rahul over 'vote chori' claim; terms allegations 'absurd'

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Friday hit back at Rahul Gandhi over his allegations of large-scale electoral fraud , telling the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha to either sign a formal declaration under the law or apologise to the nation.

Sources in the poll body said, “If Rahul Gandhi believes in his analysis and believes that his allegations against ECI are true, he should have no problem in signing the Declaration. If Rahul Gandhi does not sign the Declaration, it would mean that he does not believe in his analysis and resultant conclusions and absurd allegations. In which case he should apologise to the nation. Therefore, he has two options: Either sign the Declaration or Apologise to the Nation for raising absurd allegations against ECI.”

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Rahul, on Thursday had alleged “vote chori” in a Karnataka constituency involving 1,00,250 votes and various irregularities, dismissed the Commission’s demand, saying his public statements should be taken as his oath.

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“I am a politician, what I say to the people is my word. I am saying it to the people publicly, take it as an oath. Interestingly, they haven’t denied the information,” he said. He accused the EC of colluding with the BJP to undermine democracy and warned polling officers involved in “electoral fraud” of consequences when the Opposition returns to power.


The standoff follows letters from the Chief Electoral Officers of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Haryana asking Rahul to provide the names of voters he claims were wrongfully included or removed from the rolls, along with a signed oath under Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. This, they said, would allow “necessary proceedings” to be initiated.

The Karnataka CEO reminded the LoP that electoral rolls are prepared transparently under the Representation of the People Act and shared with party representatives. Maharashtra and Haryana officials pointed out that Congress had not filed any formal appeals against alleged discrepancies in their states.

The Congress leader also alleged that the EC was “destroying evidence” by limiting the preservation of CCTV and webcasting footage to 45 days unless results are challenged in court. “It is the 21st century, you can keep as much data as you want in a hard drive, even 10 years old data, but the Election Commission wants to destroy the CCTV footage in 45 days,” he said.

The poll body earlier said Rahul had failed to respond to its June 12 letter inviting him to substantiate his claims of “rigging” in the Maharashtra Assembly elections. “Why? Is it because his media statements were baseless?” EC sources asked, as per PTI. Gandhi has claimed such irregularities could be repeated in the upcoming Bihar elections.