New Delhi: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday criticized the Election Commission (EC), which he called the leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi “attack”, saying that the pole panel should address serious concerns rather than emphasizing formalities such as oath or affidavit. Speaking during a protest march by opposition MPs against the amendment of the electoral rolls in Bihar and “Vote theft”, Tharoor said, “The Election Commission was asked serious questions by Rahul Gandhi. They are worth the questions. Instead, they are insisting on the oath. EC’s own figures are cited. EC. Tharoor argued that EC’s attention on the process was wrong. “Instead of stuck on the formalities, they should address the doubts raised in the minds of the people. The integrity of our electoral system is important for our democracy, as well as very precious to tamper,” he said. On the EC pushback against Rahul’s claims, Tharoor reiterated, “We want answers, not an attack.” Later, in a post on X, he said that it was in the EC’s own interest to clarify doubts about the credibility of the process. He said, “The defects can be addressed and the voter list is placed to relax the possibility of manipulation. The nation deserves a reaction,” he wrote. EC officials are demanding a signed announcement from Gandhi to return their allegations. An EC official said, “Rahul Gandhi should either announce according to the rules, or apologize to the country for his false allegations.”Last week, Gandhi claimed, citing EC data of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, that more than one lakh votes were “stolen” in the Karnataka assembly section through five types of manipulation. Citing the internal Congress analysis, Gandhi said that his party expected to win 16 seats in Karnataka, but reserved nine. He accused the “vote theft” (vote theft) of 100,250 votes in the Mahadevpura Assembly section, including methods including duplicate entries, fake addresses and wholesale voter registration.
