‘Vote Adhikar Rally’ : Do or die moment to save democracy: Shri Kharge on preventing vote theft

Bengalaru: Doubling down against the electoral frauds committed by the Bharatiya Janata Party in collusion with the Election Commission of India, the Congress gave a clarion call for a “do or die” battle to save the democracy.

Addressing the ‘Vote Adhikar Rally’, a massive gathering at Freedom Park in Bengaluru, on August 8, 2025, Congress Party President Shri Mallikarjun Kharge said, “Today, on August 8th, I urge you all to draw inspiration from the Quit India Movement, a pivotal moment in our nation’s history led by Mahatma Gandhi. On August 9, 1942, Gandhi ji gave the rallying cry of ‘Do or Die,’ and today, we face a similar existential battle.”

“Our privileges as citizens are under threat as our voting rights are being snatched away”, he warned adding, this is a ‘Do or Die’ struggle for us. “We must rise to the occasion and take decisive action to save our democracy and the Constitution of India”, he asserted.

Shri Rahul Gandhi asks Karnataka govt. to probe voter fraud in Mahadevapura

Addressing the ‘Vote Adhikar rally’ a massive gathering at Freedom Park in Bengaluru, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Shri Rahul Gandhi asked the Karnataka government that it should further probe the voter list fraud that has been found to be committed in the Mahadevapura assembly segment, falling under Bangalore Central parliamentary constituency. “Every officer and Election Commissioner must understand clearly that here (in Karnataka) one Lok Sabha constituency has been stolen. This is a criminal act against the people of Karnataka and the government of Karnataka must investigate this crime and take action.”Officers of the ECI, who added so many fake voters in the list, must be questioned, he added. Shri Rahul Gandhi said - If the Election Commission of India provides the electronic data to the Party, it will prove how the elections were stolen across the country.

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Shri Rahul Gandhi said- When we investigated, we found out that one crore new voters voted in the Vidhan Sabha. One crore new people, who had not cast their vote in the Lok Sabha, magically came out to vote in the Vidhan Sabha and wherever these new voters came, BJP won the election. Our alliance’s votes did not decrease. We got the same number of votes in the Vidhan Sabha as we got in the Lok Sabha and all the increased voters went to BJP’s account. That day, we decided that something is fishy. According to our survey in Karnataka, our polling, we were ahead in 16 seats, we had to win and we won in 9.

So, we started asking questions... did we really lose these seats? We used to ask the Election Commission for the voter list, electronic, soft copy voter list, they used to refuse. We asked for videography, they did not give it and then changed the law and then said that the videography should be destroyed after 45 days. So, we started our analysis in one Lok Sabha. Bangalore Central Lok Sabha and in that we chose one Vidhan Sabha, Mahadevapura. In that, we have proved cent-percent that the Election Commission and BJP together have stolen the Lok Sabha from you, Karnataka. There are 6.5 lakh votes in Mahadevapura assembly and out of that 1,00,250 votes have been stolen... meaning they have stolen one vote out of six.

“If we get the electronic data, we will prove that the Indian Prime Minister has been elected with stolen votes”, he asserted, while pointing out, “Narendra Modi is PM because of margin of 25 seats. We have proven that one seat was stolen. They have won 25 seats. They have won with a margin of 35,000 or less votes.”

“I am saying with guarantee that if the ECI gives us electronic/digital record and videography record, we will prove that not only one seat was stolen in Karnataka, but more seats were stolen in entire India,” he said.

Warning the officers and the Election Commissioners that they are not there to work for the BJP, but for the Constitution of the country, he told them that one day they will have to face the opposition. “Maybe it will take some time, but we will catch hold of you,” he warned.

He said, “One person, one vote” is the foundational idea of the Constitution and the ECI officials were attacking that idea which means they were attacking the Constitution.”
“I want to tell them that if they think that they can get away with attacking the Constitution they must rethink,” he told them while adding, “it will take time, but we will catch you. One-by-one, we will catch you. Remember my words. If you attack the Constitution, we will attack you.”

Reminding the people of Karnataka how the state government was once stolen with money, Shri Gandhi said, “Now I am telling you with cent percent proof that even Lok Sabha election was also stolen.”

The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha said, “Now, the Election Commission demands affidavit from me. It says that I’ll have to take oath. I have taken the oath of the Constitution in Parliament.” He added that when people of the country are asking questions to the Election Commission today, it has closed its website of MP, Rajasthan, Bihar because it knows that if people start asking them questions about this data, their entire structure will collapse.

Asserting that the ECI must provide the last ten years’ electronic voter list and videography to the Congress, he said, if it does not do so, it will amount to protecting a crime and helping the BJP steal the election.

He fuirther said, “All the political opposition parties of India are asking these questions and the Election Commission should immediately hand over this data to us. The data we have extracted in Karnataka is evidence of a crime. It took us six months to extract that data, there was such a huge file of papers. We have compared one photo with millions of photos, checked every name and we believe that the entire data of India, the data of the election, is evidence and if anyone destroys it, then he is destroying the evidence and taking that crime forward and the people of the Election Commission will have to accept and understand one more thing, it took us six months to find out the truth of one seat, but, if you do not give us the data, then we can do this work not only in one but also in 10, 15, 20, 25 seats. We have paper copies. You cannot hide it. One day or the other you will have to face the opposition. This thing should be understood well. The Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Shri Rahul Gandhi, issued a stern warning to the Election Commission of India (ECI), stating, if you (ECI) attack the ‘One Man, One Vote’ right enshrined in the Indian Constitution, we will attack you.

Karnataka CM Siddaramiah endorsed Rahulji’s comments calling for the protests, “The 2024 election was manipulated to keep BJP in power. From controlling the Election Commission, to voter roll surges in Maharashtra, to silent deletions in Bihar - the pattern of manipulation is clear. Shri Rahul Gandhi revealed the scale - over 1 lakh fake votes in Mahadevapura alone, flipping Bangalore Central.”

Karnataka Chief Minister Shri Siddaramaiah and his Deputy Shri D.K. Shivkumar, along with other Party leaders, were present at the rally.