Hans News Service Bhimavaram

UnionMinister of State for Steel and Heavy Industries Bhupathiraju Srinivasa Varma has demanded that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi apologise to the people for what he described as baseless allegations against the Election Commission of India over vote theft.

Addressing a media conference at the BJP office here on Monday, Srinivasa Varma alleged that Rahul Gandhi had raised the issue to cover up the Congress’s successive electoral defeats. He said the Opposition was misleading people by making allegations against a constitutional institution. The minister dismissed the claim that 13 crore votes had been deliberately deleted, saying the figure related to a draft electoral roll published by the Election Commission for claims and objections. He said the draft included about 2.80 crore deceased persons, three crore people whose whereabouts could not be traced, 6.30 crore permanent migrants and more than one crore duplicate entries. He said political parties and individuals could raise objections and seek corrections through Form 7 and Form 8. He also said voter enrolment was being conducted four times a year and described the process as transparent.

Referring to the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, Srinivasa Varma said the law provided a role for the Leader of the Opposition in the selection process. He rejected reports of differences among Election Commissioners as speculation. On allegations concerning Form 6, he said there had been no change in the basic process of new voter registration. He claimed the earlier Form 6 and separate declaration process had caused inconvenience through multiple OTPs and said the two processes were combined for the convenience of voters. Srinivasa Varma accused Rahul Gandhi of opposing the removal of duplicate and deceased entries and said one person should have voting rights at only one place.

He claimed that 2.36 crore newly registered Gen Z voters were supporting the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and criticised Rahul Gandhi’s claim of representing the younger generation.

He also criticised the INDIA bloc and alleged that Opposition parties questioned EVMs when they lost elections but accepted them when they won in states such as Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Telangana and Kerala.