In February 2023, Mr. Patil filed a complaint claiming that forged Form 7s were being filed in the name of voters in his constituency, supposedly seeking the deletion of the names of other voters, with neither set of voters aware of the action. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
Congress MLA B. R. Patil, who first flagged the alleged voter fraud in his Aland constituency in Kalaburagi district ahead of the Karnataka Assembly election in 2023, is now considering a plea to the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to share technical data sought by State investigators to unmask the culprits behind the fraud.
The ECI’s failure to share the data has reportedly stalled the probe being carried out by the Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
After The Hindu reported on the alleged voter fraud on Sunday (September 7, 2025), Mr. Patil met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in Kalaburagi, the home district of both leaders. “I will further discuss with the party’s central leadership and legal experts before taking legal recourse,” Mr. Patil told The Hindu, adding that getting to the bottom of the case will hopefully expose those behind a systematic attempt to “rig elections”.
‘ECI shielding culprits’
Mr. Kharge later posted on X, asking why the ECI, “which had earlier shared part of the documents needed to trace the forgery, has now stonewalled the crucial information—effectively shielding those behind vote chori”.
“Is the ECI now BJP’s back-office for vote chori?” he asked. “Individual’s right to vote needs to be protected. Indian democracy needs to be protected,” he added.
Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal accused the ECI of “blocking crucial documents”, proving its culpability in hiding crucial evidence needed to prove mass-scale vote rigging. “For the ECI to withhold evidence is against their constitutional responsibility of ensuring free and fair elections. They must ensure full transparency,” he said in a post on X.
Forged forms
In February 2023, Mr. Patil filed a complaint claiming that forged Form 7s were being filed in the name of voters in his constituency, supposedly seeking the deletion of the names of other voters, with neither set of voters aware of the action. Verification on the ground revealed that of the 6,018 Form 7s filed in the constituency, 5,994 had been forged.
The forged applications were rejected, and an FIR was registered. The Karnataka CID is probing the case and has made multiple requests to the ECI for the destination IPs and destination ports of the sessions through which these forged applications were made, but has not received any response yet.
Published – September 07, 2025 11:28 pm IST
