Khera's wife also has 2 voter IDs, Rahul can't extricate himself from 'criminality' in his ranks: BJP

New Delhi, Sep 3 (PTI) The BJP on Wednesday alleged that Congress leader Pawan Khera's wife also has two active voter ID cards, and said party leader Rahul Gandhi cannot extricate himself from such "acts of criminality within his own ranks".

This comes a day after the ruling BJP alleged that Khera had two voter IDs and Gandhi was running a campaign against voter-roll revision in Bihar to "protect and hide" his party's theft of votes.

There was no immediate response from the Congress, Khera or his wife Kota Neelima, who is also a party leader in Telangana, to the BJP charge.

"Kota Neelima, another Congress leader, candidate from the Khairatabad (60) Assembly segment in Telangana, and wife of Pawan Khera, also holds two active EPICs (Electors Photo Identity Cards) - one registered in Khairatabad (Assembly constituency in Telangana) and another in New Delhi," BJP IT department head Amit Malviya said on X.

"It is now quite obvious that Congress leaders hold multiple EPIC numbers and are registered voters in more than one place. This is no coincidence.

"Those indulging in 'Vote Chori' are the very ones maligning common citizens for exercising their democratic rights and weakening our institutions," he charged.

Gandhi cannot "extricate" himself from "these acts of criminality" within his own ranks, particularly involving people aspiring for public office and members of his "inner coterie", the BJP leader said, and demanded a response from the Congress leader, who is also the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha.

Malviya also demanded that the Election Commission launch a probe into the matter.

Attacking Gandhi over Khera and his wife allegedly possessing two voter ID cards, BJP national spokesperson Shazia Ilmi said the Congress, which calls itself a 'mohabbat ki dukan', is actually running "farziwada aur fareb ka bazaar' (a market of fraud and deceit).

"While the Congress' CWC member and media head Pawan Khera has two EPICs, it turns out that his wife Kota Neelam, who was the party's candidate for the Khairatabad Assembly seat in Telangana in 2023 state polls, also possesses two EPICs," Ilmi said during a press conference at the BJP headquarters.

The Congress has once again proved it has nothing to do with democracy, she charged, slamming Gandhi for his "silence" on the issue.

"It is only interested in vote fraud and deceit," she said and demanded a high-level probe by the Election Commission into Khera and his wife allegedly possessing two voter ID cards.

Ilmi alleged the Congress, which is making "baseless allegations of vote chori'' and insulting the common people of the country, is "known for (indulging in) vote dacoity." "The entire country knows how this vote dacoity used to happen in Kashmir and Bihar before the EVMs came. In 1980, Sonia Gandhi got her name added in the voter list even though she was an Italian citizen then," she said.

The BJP has launched a counterattack on the Congress after Gandhi asserted on Monday his party will soon come out with a "hydrogen bomb" of revelations about "vote chori" and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be able to "show his face" to the country afterwards.

Gandhi made the remarks at the concluding event of his 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' in Bihar, days after he claimed that an analysis of the voter data pertaining to a Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka showed that elections were "rigged" by the poll panel allegedly at the behest of the BJP to help the saffron party "steal" votes and win the seat in the 2024 general elections.

Slamming the Congress leader over his ''vote chori'' charge, Malviya said, "Rahul Gandhi held a press conference and, without adequate due diligence, targeted and tarnished honest voters - even putting them at risk by revealing their identities without consent.

"He doxxed young, upwardly mobile professionals and poor daily wagers who had moved cities in search of better opportunities." Malviaya alleged that the "rot" wasn't limited to "Khera and family". "It goes back to the top - when Sonia Gandhi, an Italian, managed to get her name included in the voter list in 1980," he said.

"No wonder the Congress and the INDI Alliance go out on a limb to defend illegal migrants and non-Indians while castigating our own people. This is not about defending democracy. It is about defending their vote bank -which should not be on the Indian voter list at all," the BJP leader charged. PTI PK MNK MNK