New Delhi: A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by a former judge, into allegations of large-scale electoral roll manipulation raised by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi.
The plea, filed by Congress member and advocate Rohit Pandey, refers to Gandhi’s statements on August 7 regarding electoral-roll irregularities in Bengaluru Central and other constituencies. It specifically cites Gandhi’s press conference alleging manipulation in the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency in Bengaluru.
The petition seeks directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to frame and issue binding guidelines to ensure transparency, accountability, and integrity in the preparation, maintenance, and publication of electoral rolls. This includes mechanisms to detect and prevent duplicate or fictitious entries.
It further requests that no further revision or finalization of electoral rolls be undertaken until the court’s directions are complied with and an independent audit of the rolls is completed. Additionally, the petition asks the ECI to publish electoral rolls in accessible, machine-readable, and OCR-compliant formats to facilitate meaningful verification, audit, and public scrutiny.
The plea states: “Upon coming across credible revelations, including a press conference on August 7, 2025, by Rahul Gandhi, alleging large-scale manipulation of genuine voters’ names and inclusion of fictitious entries in the Mahadevapura Assembly Constituency electoral rolls, the petitioner became gravely concerned, as such actions, if true, strike at the core of the ‘one person, one vote’ principle enshrined under Articles 325 and 326 of the Constitution.”
It further claims that extracts from the electoral roll presented at the press conference show identical names in multiple polling parts, entries linked to non-existent or commercial addresses, and other manipulations. Independent citizen verification reportedly confirmed the presence of bogus and duplicate entries.
The petitioner added that, after verifying these reports against publicly available government data, there was sufficient prima facie material to suggest a systemic attempt to dilute and distort the value of lawful votes, necessitating urgent intervention by the Supreme Court.
