New Delhi: A day after leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi alleged collusion between the Election Commission and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pointing to over 1,00,000 votes being “stolen” in Karnataka’s Mahadevapura assembly constituency, the Congress leader doubled down on his allegations while hitting out at the poll body for demanding an affidavit under oath to support his claims. Gandhi said that the Election Commission, instead of threatening opposition leaders, should provide machine readable voter lists and not destroy CCTV footage.The Election Commission, on the other hand, said that Gandhi should either provide his claims in an affidavit or apologise to the nation.“Instead of threatening us, threatening me, the Election Commission should answer five questions,” said Gandhi, while addressing a “Vote Adhikar” rally in Bengaluru on Friday. “Why are you not giving voter lists in a digital machine readable format? Why are you destroying video evidence? Why is ECI committing massive fraud in the voter list? Why is ECI threatening the opposition? Why is ECI behaving like an agent of the BJP?”Gandhi, along with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and other Congress leaders, addressed the rally a day after he said that the Congress lost the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 elections because over 1,00,000 votes were “stolen”.On Thursday, Gandhi said that while the Congress won seven out of eight segments in the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha constituency, it lost in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment in which it was defeated by over 1,14,000 votes. Gandhi said that 1,00,250 votes were “stolen” through five ways. This included 11,965 duplicate voters, 40,009 voters with fake and invalid addresses, 10,452 bulk voters or single address voters, 4,132 voters with invalid photos and 33,692 voters misusing Form 6 – which is used for the registration of new voters.“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,” he said.“If we get the electronic data, we will prove that the Prime Minister has been elected with stolen votes.“Narendra Modi is the PM because of a margin of 25 seats. We have proven that one seat was stolen. They have won 25 seats with a margin of 35,000 or less votes. I am saying with guarantee that if the ECI gives us electronic records 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.In response to his allegations on Thursday, the Election Commission had asked Gandhi to sign the declaration/oath as per Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 to verify his claims.“The ECI asks me to file an affidavit and give information under oath. I have taken an oath inside the Parliament holding the Constitution. Today when the people are questioning the Election Commission based on data we released, the ECI has shut its website in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar. Because they knew that if people started questioning based on data, then their entire structure would collapse,” said Gandhi.‘Provide affidavit or apologise to the nation’While on Thursday the Election Commission had asked Gandhi to provide his claims under oath, on Friday, the poll body asked him to do so or apologise to the nation.“INC plea of providing machine readable voter list was rejected by Hon’ble Supreme Court in Kamal Nath vs ECI, 2019,” the commission said in a “fact check” tweet on Friday.The commission added that any aggrieved candidate can file an election petition (EP) to challenge his election in the concerned High Court within 45 days. “If an EP is filed, CCTV footage is retained, otherwise, it serves no purpose-unless someone intends to breach voter privacy. For example, reviewing CCTV footage from 1 lakh polling stations would take 1 lakh days-that’s 273 years-with no legal outcome possible,” it stated.The commission added that the Congress had hardly filed any appeals following the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.“Many such allegations are being made by Shri Rahul Gandhi and are being reported by the media, despite no written complaint ever being submitted by him. In the past as well, he has never personally sent a self-signed letter. For example, he raised the Maharashtra issue in December 2024,. Subsequently an advocate from AICC wrote to ECI. Our reply, dated 24 December, 2024 is publicly available on ECI website. Yet Shri Rahul Gandhi claims that ECI never responded,” the poll body said.The ECI said that either Gandhi should “sign the Declaration on issues” that he had raised “or else apologise to the nation.”