‘Don’t wait for complaint, investigate’, this former CEC came out in support of Rahul Gandhi, said a big thing to Election Commission

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has now got the support of former Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat on the fake voter issue. The former CEC believes that the Election Commission should investigate Rahul Gandhi’s allegations about fake voters in Bengaluru.

When asked about this controversy, he told The Telegraph, “When I was there, our policy was that if a senior official of a party makes an allegation, we automatically investigate it and present the facts to the common man so that faith in the system remains. We did not ask them (parties) to complain first.”

What did Rahul Gandhi allege?

Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Thursday alleged that there were more than one lakh fake voters in Mahadevapura Assembly constituency of Bengaluru Central parliamentary seat during last year’s Lok Sabha elections. He said that at least one such voter was registered at two polling stations and voted at both the places.

Showing slides of parts of the voter list, the Congress leader allegedly said that the same voter has been registered multiple times, the addresses are wrong. 80 people are registered in a one-room house and Mahadevapura voters are also registered in other states.

The Congress also protested on the issue in Bengaluru on Friday (August 8, 2025). Some people expressed their inability to access the voter list download link for some time on Friday morning. This led to allegations that the Election Commission (EC) was tampering with the voter list after Rahul’s claims. However, Election Commission sources have denied this.

Statement of Election Commission

Election Commission sources informally shared with journalists the picture of members of a particular family holding voter ID cards. This family was included in Rahul’s list of fake voters because the pictures of its members were not visible in the copy of the voter list given to his party.

In a post on X, the Commission challenged Rahul Gandhi to take an oath for every fake voter and file a complaint under the voter registration rules or apologize to the country. The Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka has also asked the Congress to submit documents in support of its memorandum on the dispute.