ECI counter to Rahul Gandhi: Sign oath or apologise for absurd allegations

The Election Commission sources once again emphasised on Friday that leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi should "either sign the declaration or apologise to the nation" for making 'absurd allegations' regarding Karnataka electoral rolls. "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," ECI sources said.

Gandhi had, on August 7, held a press conference alleging large-scale discrepancies and manipulation in the electoral rolls of Mahadevpura in Bengaluru. He also targeted the ECI alleging it was working as an arm of the government.Gandhi's allegations triggered a series of communication and disclaimers from the Chief Electoral Officers of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh by Thursday evening. The former two asked Gandhi to sign an 'oath/declaration' and share details of the electors involved in the alleged roll manipulation.

ECI sources said that the poll panel was seeking a signed oath from Gandhi given that he never sends any self-signed letter and when the ECI replies to those other entities, Gandhi 'disowns' it. For example, he raised the Maharashtra issue in December 2024. "Some advocate writes to us from AICC. Our reply, dated December 20, 2024, is on our website. But Rahul Gandhi says that we have never replied," the sources pointed out.


They also termed it a "tired script" which was also attempted by Kamal Nath, the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee president in 2018, when he allegedly tried to 'mislead the SC' by producing documents from a private website to demonstrate that there are mistakes in electoral rolls as the same face was shown again for as many as 36 voters.