Congress uses Anurag Thakur’s ‘doubtful voters’ claim to attack EC, BJP again

Former Union minister and BJP MP Anurag Thakur’s attempt to deflate Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s ‘vote chori’ (vote theft) campaign has, ironically, ended up giving the Congress more ammunition to double down on its allegations of a “collusion between the BJP and the Election Commission”.

Also Read: EC to Rahul over 'vote chori' claims: Give proof, don't use 'dirty phrases'

Thakur flags 'doubtful voters’

Addressing the media at the BJP headquarters on Wednesday (August 13), Thakur claimed that INDIA bloc leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi from the Congress, the Trinamool Congress’s Abhishek Banerjee, Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav and Dimple Yadav, and DMK chief MK Stalin had all won their respective constituencies in Lok Sabha and the Tamil Nadu assembly by having “doubtful voters” added to the electoral rolls.

Thakur went on to give a presentation detailing the number of alleged “doubtful voters”, based on the BJP’s “investigation” of electoral rolls, in the Parliamentary and assembly constituencies of each of these Opposition leaders: 93,499 in Priyanka Gandhi’s Wayanad, 2,00,089 in Rahul Gandhi’s Rae Bareli, 2,59,779 in Abhishek Banerjee’s Diamond Harbour, 2,91,798 in Akhilesh Yadav’s Kannauj, 2,55,914 in Dimple Yadav’s Mainpuri, and 19,476 in the Kolathur assembly constituency of Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin.

Congress claims EC-BJP collusion

Taking a dig at Thakur a day later, Congress media department chief Pawan Khera told reporters, on Thursday (August 14) that the former Union minister had proved what the Congress had been saying all along — that electoral rolls had been rigged. Khera then went on to assert that Thakur had, unwittingly, exposed the collusion between the BJP and the EC that Rahul Gandhi and the Congress had been pointing to for long.

“When Rahul Gandhi gave an analysis of the electoral rolls of the Mahadevapura assembly constituency in Karnataka on August 7, it had taken the Congress six months to complete its analysis of the electoral rolls of that one seat because the EC refused to give us electronic data, but within six days Thakur has come out with the BJP’s investigation of six different constituencies (five Lok Sabha and one Assembly seat). This proves that the electronic data of electoral rolls which the EC refuses to provide to the Congress and other Opposition parties is provided to the BJP; I want to thank Anurag Thakur for proving what we have been saying all along; that there is a direct collusion between the EC and the BJP,” Khera said.

Also Read: Supreme Court asks EC for 2003 Bihar electoral roll documents

'Evidence of crime'

The Congress spokesperson also pointed out that unlike the Lok Sabha LoP, who was asked by the EC to furnish his allegations regarding the Mahdevapura electoral rolls on oath “even before he could finish his press conference”, the EC “even after 24 hours of Thakur’s press conference has not asked for details of his allegations on oath... no notice has been issued till now”.

Calling Thakur’s claims about “doubtful voters” being added to the electoral rolls in the constituencies of various INDIA bloc leaders an “evidence of crime”, Khera said, “We had been wondering how the BJP managed to get over one lakh votes; now Thakur has himself told us that 93,000 doubtful voters were added to the Wayanad rolls; we know now how the BJP got more than one lakh votes.”

Khera claimed that had these doubtful voters not been added to Wayanad, Priyanka Gandhi would have won the Wayanad by-election with a margin of five lakh votes instead of the lead of 4,10,931 that she registered in the bypoll held last November. Priyanka made her electoral debut from Wayanad after her brother Rahul Gandhi vacated the seat he had won for a second time in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls with a margin of 3.64 lakh votes as he chose to retain the Gandhi family stronghold of Rae Bareli, which he had won alongside Wayanad.

Khera also claimed that Rahul’s victory margin of 3.90 lakh votes in Rae Bareli would have “crossed five lakh” had the BJP not got the votes of 2,00,089 “doubtful voters”, as revealed by Thakur, added to the constituency’s electoral rolls “in collusion with the EC”.

Also Read: Rahul Gandhi to begin Voter Adhikar Yatra from Bihar on August 17

Call for fresh polls

The Congress media department chief went on to allege that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s victory from Varanasi in the last Lok Sabha polls was secured by the BJP through rigging of electoral rolls. “The whole country saw how Modi was trailing in Varanasi (behind Congress candidate Ajay Rai) till noon on counting day; then for 150 minutes, there was no clarity about the counting and then suddenly Modi won by a lakh votes,” Khera claimed. “Varanasi ke Ganga-putron ne Modiji ko hara diya tha (the people of Varanasi had defeated Modi) but he won with a booster dose of fake voters,” Khera added.

The Congress dared the EC to issue a notice to Thakur, the same way the poll body had asked Rahul Gandhi to furnish his allegations on oath, and said, “if not, it proves that the EC and BJP are working together... we also want the EC to provide us with the electronic data of electoral rolls that they are exclusively provided only to the BJP and since Thakur has now confirmed our allegations about rigging of electoral rolls, we dare the EC and the government to nullify the Lok Sabha elections, move for dissolution of Parliament and call for fresh elections.”