Congress MP KC Venugopal alleges voter list discrepancies in Thrissur, questions ECI's neutrality

New Delhi [India], August 12 (ANI): Congress MP KC Venugopal on Tuesday raised concerns over alleged discrepancies in the voters' list, particularly in Kerala's Thrissur constituency, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured its lone seat in the state.
"After yesterday's incident, another incident was reported today as well. Many cases are coming out from Thrissur also... BJP has only one seat in Kerala, that too in Thrissur... After Rahul Gandhi's press conference, people are raising discrepancies all over India. People are realising that something wrong has happened in the voters' list. EC must address this concern. Instead of addressing it, they are only targeting Rahul Gandhi and the opposition parties... The country deserved a neutral election commission, which is non-existent here..," he said.
Earlier, Congress leader VD Satheesan demanded a thorough probe into similar complaints in Kerala's Thrissur constituency.
"The number of votes was added through fraudulent means in just one constituency. There were multiple voters with the same name, about 60 voters linked to a single-room house, and several irregularities like father's names being listed only as English initials, or house numbers marked as '0'," Satheesan said.
He also flagged alarming discrepancies in the newly enrolled voters' data, where some individuals listed as 18 years old were actually between 70 and 80 years old.
Satheesan further added, "Such large-scale electoral fraud has taken place across the country, including in the Maharashtra Assembly elections and the last Parliamentary elections. It is now being repeated in Bihar. PM Narendra Modi and his associates are in power by sabotaging free and fair elections, something seen only in authoritarian regimes, not in true democracies. They are not even fit to remain in power."
On August 7, Rahul Gandhi said 1,00,250 "fake votes" were created in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment in the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka to ensure a win for the BJP.
Taking reporters through a detailed presentation of the 'fraud' at the Congress headquarters in Delhi, the Leader of Opposition alleged that "collusion" had happened between the Election Commission of India and the BJP, which resulted in Prime Minister Narendra Modi securing his third term.
"Narendra Modi became Prime Minister with just a margin of 25 seats... Election Commission is helping BJP destroy the electoral system in India... The Election Commission is not giving us the data because of what we did in Mahadevpur (Karnataka Assembly constituency); if we do it in other Lok Sabha seats, then the truth about our democracy will come out. This is the evidence, criminal evidence (pointing to the physical voter list)," Rahul Gandhi said.
The Congress leader further alleged that the poll body is "destroying evidence" by only preserving CCTV and webcasting footage of the election process for 45 days after the whole process is completed, unless the election result is challenged in court.
Earlier today, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge joined fellow INDIA bloc members in staging a protest in Parliament over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) issue.
Several Opposition MPs arrived wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan '124 Not Out'.
Prominent leaders such as Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar), MP Supriya Sule, and DMK MP Kanimozhi were seen holding onions during the protest. (ANI)