- 1 year ago
In this episode of Super 6, the focus is on allegations of vote manipulation in Karnataka. Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, has accused the Election Commission of compromising the voting process in the Aland seat during the 2023 elections.
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00:00All right, our top focus on Super 6 is on Karnataka.
00:03Allegations of vote manipulation continue to swirl.
00:06As a leader of opposition, Rahul Gandhi ramped up his criticism of the election commission.
00:12How? Well, Rahul Gandhi is targeted one particular seat this time in North Karnataka, in the island seat.
00:18This is in Kalaburgi district.
00:20Now, he's claimed that the integrity of the voting process in this particular seat was compromised during the 2023 elections.
00:27Rahul Gandhi alleges that there was actually an attempt to wipe out 6,000-plus voter names from the rolls to change the outcome.
00:36This was a seat that the Congress had won in the 2023 assembly elections.
00:41But Rahul Gandhi says and suggests there were attempts to change that,
00:44that 6,000 names were almost deleted with accusations of fake logins of suspicious locations.
00:51Essentially, the suggestion that he's making is that there were online attempts to actually wipe out names from the voter list.
00:59Now, he's therefore questioned the very legitimacy of the election process.
01:03The election commission in response has rejected all of these allegations,
01:06saying they're completely baseless and highlighting the fact that they had pushed, filed a complaint,
01:12and FIR was filed based on their complaint over this exact issue.
01:16Let's break it down for you.
01:18What exactly is the issue that Rahul Gandhi has raised over that one seat in Karnataka?
01:23We break that down for you first.
01:24A second vote-chory charge and for a second time centred around Karnataka.
01:37Rahul Gandhi in his all-out attack against the EC has now cited data from a seat in Karnataka to allege vote-chory.
01:44The seat in the spotlight, Aland in North Karnataka.
01:49Listen in first to Rahul's charge.
01:516,018 votes.
01:56Somebody tried to delete 6,018 votes.
02:00We don't know the total number of votes that were deleted in Anand in the 23rd election.
02:06They're much higher than 6,018.
02:09But somebody got caught deleting 6,018 votes.
02:16And it was caught, like most crimes, by a coincidence.
02:20So, according to Rahul Gandhi, there was an attempt to delete 6,018 names in this seat during the 2023 elections.
02:29Now, Rahul claims that fake logins were used for these deletion requests.
02:33And the requests came from mobile numbers outside Karnataka.
02:37He has also highlighted that the forms were filled at odd hours at what he calls unnatural speech.
02:44Rahul Gandhi has also alleged that the Karnataka CID attempted to look into this irregularity.
02:49Karnataka CID, by September 25, last letter went in September 25, has written 18 reminder letters.
02:58Now, this is absolute solid proof that Gyanesh Kumar is protecting the people who are doing this.
03:12This is also absolute solid proof what I've shown you that this is being done in a centralized way.
03:19The election commission has meanwhile rubbished the charge over the Aland seat, calling the allegations baseless and setting the record straight on the CID probe.
03:30Mind you, the Aland seat that Rahul Gandhi was focused on in his expose was a seat that Congress won in 2023.
03:37Rahul Gandhi's allegations have sparked a political storm in Karnataka, with the Congress government in the state escalating the vote-jury narrative.
03:55The election commission is not cooperating with the investigation team.
04:05Whatever Rahul Gandhi said, it is not 100%, it is 200% is right.
04:09This is going on in the entire country.
04:12We want the election commission to work very independently.
04:15They are looking in a political angle.
04:17We want the election commission to work very well.
04:47Now, while Rahul Gandhi has said that, look, there was an attempt to delete over 6,000 names from the rolls, this is an issue that came up earlier.
05:14Now, there was an FIR that was registered, and let's run you through that particular chronology as well, which the Congress has referred to, saying that in February 2023, the FIR was filed.
05:24This, mind you, was based on the election commission flagging up this issue.
05:28So the Karnataka CID stepped in.
05:30They wrote to the election commission requesting IP addresses because, like I said earlier, all of this seemingly was done online.
05:37So in March 2023, there was this request put forth by the Karnataka CID.
05:42Five months later, information was passed across from the election commission, only some of it, though not all of the requests made by the CID was accommodated.
05:51So again, the Karnataka CID wrote another letter to the election commission requesting for more information.
05:57This was, again, about four months after you had some information from the election commission.
06:02So in Jan 2024, there was another request.
06:05In all, the Karnataka CID has reportedly written to the election commission of India 18 times there's been no response.
06:13This is what Rahul Gandhi has raised to question why the election commission hasn't given details just yet.
06:18Let's get your breaking news coming in.
06:19Now, the Karnataka government is contemplating the formation of a special investigative team, an SIT, headed by a senior IPS officer to actually probe the allegations of Votchori in Karnataka.
06:39There are two areas already that Rahul Gandhi has spoken of.
06:43First, in his first expose, the focus, the spotlight was on Mahadevpura, which is part of the Bangalore Central constituency.
06:48And now, Aland in Karnataka, which is in North Karnataka.
06:52And so there's a possibility that the Sidramaya government could go ahead and set up an SIT to look into these allegations.
06:59I'll quickly bring in Sagay Raj for more details.
07:02So on this, Sagay, what are you hearing from your sources?
07:04Is this something that the Sidramaya government will be doing in the coming days?
07:08Because the Karnataka CID is already looking into this based on the FIR that was registered in 2023.
07:14This was an expected line.
07:18And even after a leader of opposition and their supremo Rahul Gandhi had addressed the press conference,
07:24it was expected that the Karnataka government might go ahead and go ahead for the next step, that is forming an SIT.
07:31And now, the government sources have been thinking about forming an SIT.
07:37And the announcement might come out probably tomorrow or the day after.
07:41We'll get to know that B.K. Singh was a senior IPS officer who had investigated the Brazil Rewarna Gangreb case
07:47will head this particular investigation as well, where they will go ahead and inquire on the allegations made by Rahul Gandhi
07:54in connection with Mahadepura and Ananda Occhori.
07:58Okay, Sagay, thanks very much for those details.
08:00Let's get you another news break that's coming in.
08:10Now, the Congress has alleged that there's been no response from the Election Commission
08:14whenever the Karnataka CID sought information from the EC.
08:17And they've now said the last letter that went across from the Karnataka CID
08:23was actually, in fact, on 9th September, just about 10 days ago.
08:29And they're saying that despite that, there was no response from the Election Commission.
08:34Now, the CID has written 18 times to the Election Commission in the last 18 months
08:38since the AFIR was registered in February 2023.
08:42Let me open this up to our panel joining us this evening.
08:48We've got Lakshmi Ashwin Gowda, BJP Karnataka State Secretary Spokesperson of the party.
08:53Lavanya Balal, Congress Spokesperson.
08:55We've got Sandeep Shastri, political analyst as well.
08:57Thank you all very much for your time.
08:58Mr. Sandeep Shastri, I'd like to begin with you, sir, on your reaction.
09:02What do you make of Rahul Gandhi's allegations, focused particularly on Ireland and Karnataka?
09:07I think it is increasingly becoming a political crossfire.
09:18What could be a question of the Election Commission looking into an allegation
09:24has now become a crisis or a clash between the Congress and the BJP.
09:30I think, like has been said by a range of former Chief Election Commissioners,
09:37it was important that the Election Commission makes a way forward by looking into the allegations made.
09:48Now, if there are allegations made, you need to set up a transparent, open inquiry
09:54so that the public has the confidence that things are happening.
09:58And soon after what Rahul Gandhi said today, if the Election Commission immediately dismisses it,
10:06it appears as if there has been a little application of mind on this.
10:12But the sad thing is it has become a political ball which is being tossed between the Congress and the BJP.
10:19And that is something that should not have happened.
10:22There should have been greater limitation of the intensity of the language used by the Congress leader.
10:31As also the attack on the Congress leadership for the point it is making,
10:37I think that it was a need for a little more caution in terms of the language on both the sides.
10:42Because when such language is used, the focus goes away from the allegation to other issues.
10:49Mr. Shastri, you know, it was bound to become political.
10:53But keeping that aside, looking at what Rahul Gandhi is alleged,
10:56there has been a response from the Election Commission.
10:58What do you make of that response, Mr. Shastri?
11:00Do you think that people are buying into what Rahul Gandhi is saying of this vote-chory narrative?
11:05And do you think the EC is doing a good job of countering that?
11:10Do you think they are actually managing to counter that narrative at all?
11:15What the Congress leadership is alleging that a range of letters have been written by the CID
11:22to the Election Commission with no response.
11:26I think if there is some proof of the same provided,
11:29it would lead to greater evidence of the fact that issues are not looked into.
11:35Let's also remember in the same breath that the CID is under the control of the Garnataka state government,
11:43which is a Congress government.
11:44So, as you rightly put it, Akshata, you cannot separate the politics in the whole process.
11:50Though as we desperately tried to do that to get at the core issues,
11:55it seems to be enmeshed in this political fight,
11:58because when CID asked the Election Commission,
12:00the Election Commission would raise,
12:02who is the CID to do that?
12:05The CID is of a state government, which is of a different political party.
12:10So, in the process, what happens is the political divide takes center stage,
12:16and the issue gets lost sight of.
12:18Very true.
12:20Mr. Sandeep Shastra, I request you to stay with me.
12:22I'll open this up to our political panelists as well.
12:24Lakshmi Gowda, you know, the question that's constantly raised here is,
12:28if the Election Commission did file a complaint, as they've said,
12:31and an FIR was registered,
12:32why have they then not replied to any of the notices that were issued by the Karnataka CID?
12:37Akshita, I would like to tell first that I can first understand the frustration of Mr. Rahul Gandhi,
12:47who could not defeat our Honorable Prime Minister and BJP party for three consecutive terms.
12:53And I can understand how he is giving the bizarre, hollow, baseless statements
12:59about Election Commission of India, our Electoral Integrity and Democratic Accountability.
13:04If he continues to do so,
13:06if he continues to give the same hollow, bizarre statements
13:09about our Electoral Integrity and Democratic Accountability,
13:13he should remain in the opposition for three more consecutive terms,
13:16should he get more frustrated.
13:18I'm sorry to say this.
13:19The preposterous statement of Mr. Rahul Gandhi about Election Commission of India,
13:24about vote shodhi against BJP party
13:27and the Constitutional Body Election Commission of India
13:29and the dismissal of his own party legislator
13:32are contradictory to each other.
13:36Rahul Gandhi, Mr. Rahul Gandhi, seems to be more bothered,
13:38he's not least bothered about our Bharata and our Bharata OCO.
13:43And he seems to be more bothered about...
13:45We've spoken of this before,
13:47that everyone has a right to ask questions
13:49when there are questions are asked,
13:51particularly about how the EC functions.
13:52Maybe the right way to go about it is to answer those questions.
13:55And look, we're talking about a state
13:56that's Congress ruled.
14:00The Election Commission of India has given a clarification to Mr. Rahul Gandhi
14:04that no deletion can occur without a due process
14:07and the affected person being properly out of.
14:11These baseless preposterous statements are creating,
14:16especially to spin the false narrative,
14:17to spread the false narrative,
14:19just to create the political unrest.
14:21He is hallucinating that thereby it can create the political unrest,
14:24thereby it can dismantle the more than, larger than life image of Mr. Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji.
14:31It's simply impossible.
14:32That is only his hallucination.
14:34He should continue to hallucinate.
14:36Should he get more frustrated by doing that?
14:38In Lavanya Balal of the Congress on this.
14:41Lavanya Balal, the question that's constantly raised,
14:43you heard there from the BJP,
14:45is that the Election Commission in their counter has said that,
14:48look, it's not as simple as wiping out votes online,
14:52that there is then a physical verification that's done.
14:55So this is a half-baked narrative that's being put out.
14:59Good evening, Akshita.
15:00Before we proceed, I would like to tell Mr. Shastri ji,
15:03the first complaint by the CID, this is for your information, sir,
15:08was filed in February 2023 while the BJP government was still in power in Karnataka.
15:14Secondly, I would request the BJP spokesperson to not make personal comments about our leaders
15:20because we will also resort to that if she continues in the same vein.
15:24Thirdly, there have been people on stage while Mr. Gandhi was doing a presentation today.
15:29Both parties, you know, under one woman's name,
15:33there was an attempt to erase the electoral data or the, you know, data of other 12 people.
15:40And both parties were present here.
15:43Rahul Gandhi today has given a platform to the voters
15:46to express what has been going on with their votes under their name.
15:51Look at it logically.
15:52At 4 o'clock in the morning, somebody logs in and tries to fill this form.
15:57In 36 seconds, two forms are filled and attempted to, you know, submit this forms.
16:03If our candidate would not have caught this vote chori happening because the BLO herself realized
16:09her uncle's vote is being removed by her neighbor who had no clue that it is going on.
16:16That is why this issue has come forth.
16:18Now, when we talk about election commission,
16:20no, election commission has not given any kind of clarity today.
16:24Election commission has very rudely dismissed this allegations.
16:29Like Mr. Shastri said, the election commission would, I think, gain people's trust once again
16:35if they go and give explanations or made any attempt to give explanations for these voter additions
16:43or deletions, which it is not doing.
16:45And I feel BGP as another party in this democratic country, if they were really concerned about
16:51the democratic process, they should also be questioning a supposedly independent body
16:57that is failing to, you know, do its duty.
17:01I'll put out for you what the election commission has said right now.
17:05They have very clearly at this point spoken about the allegation of the vote deletion saying
17:10it doesn't happen that, you know, someone just tries online and then the vote is wiped out,
17:15that there is a physical verification that's done.
17:18The election commission also says that, yes, certain unsuccessful attempts were made in 2023
17:22and FIR was filed by the authority of ECI itself to investigate the matter.
17:27So they've been apprised of this in 2023.
17:30But the question now is, Akshita, there have been 18 letters written by the CEID of Karnataka
17:38for which only once the election commission has given partial information.
17:43What stops the election commission with, you know, from assisting an investigation
17:49into an attempt into vote choice?
17:51They also want the same results, right?
17:53I'm sure end of the day, all of us, irrespective of whichever party,
17:57we do not want our rights to be stolen by somebody.
18:01We don't know who that person is who is trying to log in and meddle with this voter data.
18:06Why is it that the election commission does not want to know who is trying to do the vote jury?
18:11The same question applies to the BGP.
18:13Why are you so upset?
18:14If somebody is trying to do vote jury, it is all of our duty to ask the election commission,
18:20please give a clarification.
18:22You don't need to defend the election commission
18:25for the dereliction of the duty of the election commission.
18:28Lakshmi Gowda, you know, all this while, the BGP has said that what Rahul Gandhi is saying is fake.
18:34None of it is true.
18:35In this particular case, the election commission has conceded that, yes, this happened in 2023
18:39and they are the ones who moved forward to look into it.
18:42In which case, it's extremely worrying that someone was attempting to wipe out names from the voter roll.
18:47So, is the BGP too concerned about this?
18:49The election commission of India has given a clarification saying that it cannot be done like that
18:56without being the affected person being properly heard of.
19:00Mr. Rahul Gandhi is so much skeptical about Indian democratic system itself.
19:05He is so much skeptical about constitutional bodies and our gigantic technological prowess of the country.
19:11The technological prowess of the country because he doesn't believe in EVMs.
19:16He doesn't believe in BGP.
19:18No, one second, one second.
19:19Lakshmi Gowda, I'll come to you.
19:20Lakshmi Gowda, no, Lakshmi Gowda, my question to you is very specific.
19:24No, no, Lakshmi Gowda, I'll ask you a very specific question.
19:27Lakshmi Gowda, please answer my question.
19:29My question was very clear.
19:31It was a very specific question.
19:32Looking at the information that Rahul Gandhi has put out,
19:34which, by the way, is not new because the election commission themselves have confirmed
19:38that this is something they knew about in 2023.
19:40Is it something that also concerns the BGP that there were certain unsuccessful attempts,
19:46but attempts were made to wipe out voters, to wipe out and delete their names, over 6,000 of them?
19:52There are a battery of Congress leaders, those who got dismissed because of their whole jury,
19:57because of the electoral malpractices.
19:59The contradictory statements that is put out by Mr. Rahul Gandhi and the dismissal of his own party leaders
20:06and the name of the constituencies he is mentioning are the Congress,
20:10are the constituencies where the Congress party has won the election.
20:15What does it mean?
20:15He is giving the contradictory statements.
20:17He is telling that his only party people have done the electoral malpractices.
20:21Ma'am, you're not answering my question.
20:21Ma'am, you're not answering my question.
20:25My question again comes back to the same and I'll repeat it for you.
20:28Is the BGP concerned by what's emerged?
20:31What Rahul Gandhi has said, again I'll repeat, is not new information.
20:34The election commissioners confirmed that in 2023 there was an attempt to delete over 6,000 votes.
20:40Is the BGP concerned, yes or no?
20:42It doesn't concern BGP anyways because we don't see anything and everything through the lens of vote bank politics.
20:49We see anything and everything through the lens of national interest, nationalism.
20:53Unlike Mr. Rahul Gandhi, he would like to see everything through the lens of vote bank politics.
20:58Rahul Gandhi and his party, Muslim appeasement, vote bank politics, we don't see that through the lens of vote bank.
21:04We are not concerned with that.
21:06Okay, Lavanya Balal, your response.
21:08The constant question that also keeps coming up is if Rahul Gandhi is coming out with one expose after another against the election commission,
21:15why not submit these details, why not go to court?
21:19They have already been submitted, Akshita.
21:22Now we are talking about a case where there is an investigation going on and the election commissioner is not supporting the investigation.
21:31This is where we are at this stage.
21:33Nationalism does not mean compromising the rights of Indian citizens.
21:38The BGP spokesperson is unaware that, you know, if somebody loses his voting right, it is indetrimental to the national or the nation building activities.
21:49I'm sorry.
21:50In her passion to, you know, deride what Mr. Gandhi is saying.
21:54No, Lavanya Balal, at the same time, there will be questions of whether there were attempts to fear monger here.
22:00When the election commissioners take a note of this back in 2023, when they've referred to it as unsuccessful attempts and when they've said very clearly that, look, this is not something that can happen online.
22:10There is a physical verification that's also done if there are attempts to delete votes.
22:15Are we attempting to suggest that just because there was this attempt, it happened?
22:18No, no.
22:19Akshita, let me make it clear.
22:21In February 2023 is when the investigation starts or when it was informed to the chief election commissioner.
22:26They respond in August of that year, 2023, with partial information.
22:31After that, they have just stonewalled the investigation.
22:35They are agreed that there was an attempt to remove some of the voters from the voter list.
22:40So there is a problem.
22:42There has been an attempt to remove voters list and that too from phone numbers from outside of Karnataka.
22:49The phone numbers that attempted to remove this were not from Karnataka.
22:53The logins happened for 36 seconds.
22:55Imagine how fast the human being has to be to fill a form in 36 seconds
23:00and submit two forms, which is impossible, humanly impossible.
23:04So all of this has happened, it is in the greater good of the nation
23:08that all of us today must demand transparency from the election commission.
23:14Even the BGP, it should stop defending an officer who has failed his duty.
23:19Final, final word to Mr. Sandeep Shastri.
23:21Sir, you have heard from both the BGP and Congress on this.
23:25Their stance are very clear on the issue.
23:27But on the ground, do you see this actually becoming a campaign for the opposition of vote chori
23:33that they have been raising in Bihar, in other states too?
23:36So, undoubtedly, this can become the central issue of a campaign.
23:45It depends on how the different parties put it forward.
23:49But Akshita, I'll just make two small points on what has been discussed till now.
23:53I think let us accept the fact that the election commission has conceded that there were attempts at deleting names
24:03and the election commission has been forthright in saying that no such deletion can happen without a process being followed
24:10and that the election commission has committed itself to.
24:15They have also conceded that such an attempt was made, which I think is an important point.
24:20And therefore, our BGP spokesperson here saying that they are not concerned about any attempted vote deletion
24:28at name deletion, I don't think would be subscribed to by the BGP leadership.
24:34The BGP leadership's commitment to democracy would always make them say
24:38any attempt to try and delete names by people who should not be doing that is something that can be objected to.
24:46So, I think there are multiple issues coming in here.
24:48And these multiple issues, as I said to you earlier, Akshita, is residing in this becoming the center of political crossfires.
24:57Okay. Mr. Sandeep Shastri, thank you very much for joining us.
25:00I'd also like to thank Lavanya Balala and Lakshmi Gowda for their time and for joining us here on India Today.
25:06We'll leave it to the viewer to decide the merit of what Rahul Gandhi's alleged here.
25:10You've got a response from the Election Commission as well on the allegations put forth by Rahul Gandhi.
25:15In part two of his expose, he says the hydrogen bomb is coming up very, very soon.
25:20All right. With that, let's shift our focus to Tamil Nadu, where politics is heating up.
25:24We're just about seven months to go for the elections.
25:27There's been a lot of questions, talk, buzz about Edapadi Pani Swami's visit to Delhi and his meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah.
25:35Endless speculation of exactly what was discussed in that meeting.
25:40EPS now has spoken out about it and he claims Amit Shah has given him a direct assurance
25:44that the BJP has no say and will not interfere whatsoever in the AIDM case internal matters.
25:50Politics in Tamil Nadu is heating up.
25:58Amid the internal rift in the AIDMK,
26:00Party General Secretary Edapadi Pala Nisamy met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi.
26:05Under intense pressure to take back former AIDMK leaders such as Sasikala,
26:10O. Paneer Selvan and T.D. Viddinakaran,
26:12Pala Nisamy claimed that Shah had assured that he would not interfere
26:15into the internal matters of the Dravidian party.
26:18Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has latched out at EPS at a rally in Karoor.
26:43Stalin accusing the AIDMK chief of totally surrendering before Amit Shah.
26:48Congress MP Karthiji Thamaram,
26:53True Clearer,
27:18said that the AIDMK had lost its independence.
27:21Anna DMK, a powerful political party and a legacy political party in Tamil Nadu,
27:25unfortunately has lost its independence.
27:28It is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the BJP.
27:31Even for any small internal problem, they'll have to run to Delhi for arbitration.
27:36And the people of Tamil Nadu have lost confidence in them.
27:38Former AIDMK leader T.D. Viddinakaran hit out at EPS, dismissing allegations of kidnapping party MLA's.
27:45He's wearing mask.
27:47He actually, he showed his real colour and real nature in Delhi.
27:54I didn't kidnap anybody.
27:56Those MLA's who all got upset because Pala Nisamy removed me from party when I was the deputy general secretary.
28:07As long as Pala Nisamy is the general secretary or the face of AIDMK, it will not win in any elections.
28:18Now, sources tell India today that EPS is unwilling to compromise with Paneer Selvam and Sasi Kalla,
28:24unlike his predecessors M.G. Ramachandran and Jai Lalita,
28:27who had occasionally accommodated bitter critics and dissenters within the party for pragmatic political reasons.
28:33For now, the BJP appears to keep Paneer Selvam, Sasi Kalla and Dhinakaran in waiting,
28:56as it doesn't want to rock its alliance with the AIDMK.
29:01With Pramod Madhav in Chennai, Bureau Report, India Today.
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