Athawale terms Rahul Gandhi's fresh vote theft allegations as `baseless'

Mumbai, Sep 18 (PTI) Union minister Ramdas Athawale on Thursday termed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's fresh allegations of vote theft as "baseless", and said omission of voters from lists happened during the Congress regime too.

Talking to PTI Videos, the RPI (A) chief also said that Gandhi often makes contradictory claims. "Sometimes he says voters were added, and sometimes he claims there was deletion of voters," Athawale said.

Earlier in the day, Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of protecting those who "destroyed democracy", and cited data from a Karnataka Assembly constituency to claim that votes of Congress supporters were being systematically deleted ahead of elections.

Responding to the allegations, Athawale said names often go missing from voter lists, and this had happened when the Congress was in power too.

"This problem did not arise during the current government," said the Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment.

The Election Commission has clarified that voters' names can not be deleted online, Athawale said, adding that it is not the case that only the names of those who vote for the Opposition go missing.

If Gandhi has any evidence, he should provide it to the Election Commission, he said, asserting that names are not deleted from voter lists deliberately.

As to Gandhi's claim that voters from OBC, minority and tribal communities were being deleted, Athawale said it was a divisive tactic meant to create rifts in society.

In Maharashtra, most Dalit votes now go to the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance, and tribal and Dalit communities have supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi ever since he came to power, he said.

The BJP governments in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have chief ministers from the OBC and tribal communities, respectively, while there is a Brahmin chief ministers in Rajasthan, said Athawale, himself a prominent Dalit leader from Maharashtra.

As the issue of reservation was not working for the Congress, Gandhi is targeting and defaming the Election Commission, he alleged. PTI PS KRK