‘Sign Declaration or Apologise to Nation’: Election Commission’s Ultimatum to Rahul Gandhi Over Voter Fraud Claims

The Election Commission of India on Thursday issued a stern ultimatum to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, challenging him to either formally sign a declaration backing his explosive voter fraud allegations or issue a public apology to the nation. The sharp rebuttal from the poll body came after Gandhi accused it of “colluding” with the BJP to “steal” the election in Karnataka’s Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency.

“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,” ECI sources stated, putting the onus squarely on the Leader of the Opposition. “If he does not sign, it would mean he does not believe in his own conclusions and absurd allegations. In that case, he should apologise to the nation.”

The confrontation was triggered by a 72-minute presentation in which Gandhi alleged that a massive fraud involving over 100,000 “stolen” votes occurred in the Mahadevapura assembly segment.

He claimed a six-month analysis by a 40-member team uncovered duplicate entries, fake addresses, and invalid photos in the voter rolls, which he said were provided in a non-machine-readable format to deliberately impede scrutiny. According to Gandhi, this manipulation allowed the BJP to overcome the Congress’s lead in other segments and win the seat by a narrow margin of 32,707 votes.

The allegations drew swift and strong reactions. Chief electoral officers from multiple states, including Karnataka and Maharashtra, formally wrote to Gandhi, asking him to provide specific names of the allegedly fraudulent voters along with a signed declaration under electoral rules to initiate proceedings.

The BJP also launched a fierce counter-attack, with Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan accusing Gandhi of a “larger conspiracy” to undermine democratic institutions. Senior leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said Gandhi had “crossed all limits of shamelessness,” while the winning BJP MP from Bangalore Central, PC Mohan, dismissed the claims as “another drama” and questioned why no legal challenge was filed within the prescribed 45-day period after the results were declared.