Mangaluru: Congress has stepped up its district-level ‘Vote bachao, desh bachao’ campaign in Mangaluru, with AICC working committee member Kamaleshwar Patel alleging electoral irregularities and deletion of voters’ names from electoral rolls.Patel told reporters Sunday that the campaign would mobilise citizens to protect their constitutional rights.“The ongoing incidents of vote theft are a direct assault on our democracy,” he said.Patel said, “In Karnataka’s Mahadevapura assembly constituency alone, an analysis of 10,00,500 voter entries exposed 11,956 duplicate names, 40,009 unauthentic addresses, and 10,452 registrations sharing a single address.”Patel also cited figures from recent elections, alleging that continuous scrutiny through SIR mechanisms had led to the removal of 1,30,30,000 votes across the country.MLC Manjunath Bhandary said the campaign was necessary to protect voters’ democratic rights. “We cannot remain silent while the democratic voices of our people are being systematically suppressed, and this campaign ensures every legitimate vote remains secured.”DCC president Padmaraj R Poojary said party workers were reaching out across the district to raise awareness of alleged electoral irregularities.Patel also alleged that Maharashtra’s voter rolls saw an unprecedented addition of 40,00,000 voters in just five months between the 2024 Lok Sabha and subsequent assembly elections, despite adult population projections showing only 3,200,000 growth over five years. Patel alleged similar massive discrepancies and suspicious duplicate entries in Haryana and West Bengal.Launching a scathing attack on the central govt, he said, “Despite objections being raised by the other two election commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, against the conduct of Gyanesh Kumar, no action had been taken nor was there any response from either the Election Commission of India or the govt, as Gyanesh Kumar is completely working under the influence of home minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he alleged, questioning the credibility of the central govt being voted to power by means of electoral fraud.All India Congress Committee (AICC) launched the nationwide ‘Vote bachao, desh bachao’ campaign against alleged electoral fraud and deletion of voters’ names from electoral rolls. Spearheaded by AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, the campaign aims to safeguard citizens’ voting rights.The nationwide campaign began on Oct 10 and will continue until Nov 26, with major rallies scheduled in New Delhi on Nov 1 and around Constitution Day on Nov 26. District-level awareness programmes are being held across various districts, including Mangaluru, Maharashtra, Haryana, and West Bengal.
