ECI asks Rahul Gandhi to give signed oath on missing names in voters' list

Within hours of leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi alleging mass 'manipulation' of electoral rolls in a Bengaluru constituency, Karnataka's chief electoral officer (CEO) asked Gandhi to furnish a signed declaration with the names of eligible voters he believes are deleted and the names of ineligible voters added in the electoral rolls.

CEOs of Maharashtra and Haryana also followed suit, shooting off a communication to Gandhi, citing his press conference and asking him to share a signed declaration/oath with names of such electors, so that 'necessary proceedings can be initiated'.

Sources in the Election Commission of India, meanwhile, held that either Gandhi should sign such a declaration or desist from mounting baseless allegations against the poll panel and mislead the public.


"Why is he running away from signing the oath/declaration as per rules," EC sources asked.

Uttar Pradesh CEO refuted the allegations made by Gandhi on two electors -- Aditya Shrivastav and Vishal Singh -- being registered in multiple places including in UP and Karnataka . The CEO said that after a search on the ECI database -- voter's.ECI.gov.in -- the duo was not found on the UP voter list as alleged and only registered at Mahadevpura in Bengaluru.

The letters from CEOs came soon after Rahul Gandhi alleged large-scale rigging in elections in the Bengaluru Lok Sabha seat last year in which the Congress lost. Gandhi had accused the ECI of engineering voter list manipulation at the behest of the BJP.

The Karnataka CEO, in his letter, said the authorities had shared the draft electoral rolls of special summary revision (SSR) with the Congress in November 2024 and shared the final rolls in January 2025. The Congress did not file any objections to these. The CEO highlighted that as far as the conduct of elections were concerned, one could question the results only through an election petition before the high court.

The CEO, along with his letter, sent a written declaration to the AICC leader and asked him to sign and return it along with specific information on missing names. Gandhi was told to mention names of voters included/excluded, part number of the electoral roll and serial number in the electoral roll. The declaration says the signatory (Gandhi) is aware that making a false declaration or giving false evidence is a punishable offence under both Representation of People's Act, 1950 and Bhartiya Nyaya Samhita, 2023. The Maharashtra CEO also stated the same in his communication to Gandhi.

Gandhi has alleged that about 65,000 votes were cast in just 10 minutes in Bengaluru Central constituency during the LS polls, last year. In Mahadevapura assembly segment of Bengaluru Central, there were 1,00,250 votes that were fake/ duplicate/ fraudulent/ bulk votes/ votes with invalid photos/votes.