ECI must clarify discrepancies in voter lists raised by Rahul Gandhi: CWC’s Gidugu Rudra Raju

VIZIANAGARAM

Congress Working Committee member and former PCC President Gidugu Rudra Raju on Saturday (August 9, 2025) asked the Election Commission of India to answer five questions raised by the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, about large-scale discrepancies in the voters’ list in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Haryana and other places.

He said that Mr. Gandhi’s relentless probe for the last six months had exposed ECI’s suspicious approach and its decisions to benefit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wherever elections were held in the country.

Mr. Raju, who toured in North Andhra to oversee the Congress Party affairs, spoke to The Hindu on the ‘vote theft’ issue.

“ECI is not providing electoral data in digital format as it has been encouraging malpractices to benefit the BJP and its alliance partners in the elections.“ he said.

“Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi won 31 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 Parliament elections. But it was defeated suspiciously in the Assembly elections held only after four months. The voters will not change their opinion in a short period, and it raises many doubts with regard to the election process,” said Mr. Raju.

He said that the BJP would witness a massive defeat in the ensuing Bihar elections in spite of the manipulation of the voters’ list, as Mr. Gandhi’s relentless fight on the electoral system caught the attention of the common people, as they are aware of happenings through frontline media and social media platforms.

Mr. Raju said that the Congress would come back as a strong political force in Andhra Pradesh very soon, as people were fed up with the poor administration of the State economy during the YSRCP and TDP regimes in the last 11 years.

“AP had been a vibrant State when the Congress was in power. The people understood that only the Congress Party can put the State on the path of development with the implementation of its promise over Special Category Status,” said Mr. Raju.

He said that the All India Congress Committee had put special focus on AP and appointed a new Political Affairs Committee to revive the party at every level. He hoped that the many leaders who had left the Congress Party would come back into the party fold as they were not happy with the functioning of regional parties which ignored the importance of internal democracy and freedom.