• Source:JND
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Rahul Gandhi Bengaluru Rally: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday again deflected the Election Commission's dare to sign an enclosed affidavit in support of his claims of 'vote theft' while saying he has taken an oath in the Parliament.

While addressing the 'Vote Adhikar Rally' in Bengaluru, Gandhi asked the poll body for a full electronic voter list.He said, "I have taken the oath inside the Parliament and on the constitution, and EC is asking me to take an oath on the vote theft."

His statement came a day after his press conference, where he showed documents to prove that over 1 lakh fake votes were created in the Mahadevapura assembly constituency in Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha constituency.

He accused the poll body of doing this to ensure the BJP wins. The EC responded with a dare and later, the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) from at least three states, including Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, asked him to submit names of electors he claimed were wrongfully included or excluded from the voter rolls. The EC also asked for a signed declaration so that "necessary proceedings" could be initiated.

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In a letter, the Karnataka chief electoral officer (CEO) said, "You had mentioned about the inclusion of ineligible electors and exclusion of eligible electors in the Electoral Rolls."

"You are kindly requested to sign and return the enclosed declaration/oath under Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, along with the name(s) of such elector(s) so that necessary proceedings can be initiated."

The ECI is planning to take the allegations head on and confront the Lok Sabha LoP. According to the EC sources quoted by ANI, if Rahul Gandhi does not sign a declaration for further proceedings, he should apologise to the nation.

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ANI quoted EC sources, "If Gandhi believes in his analysis and believes that his allegations against ECI are true, he should have no problem in signing the Declaration. If he 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."