Chennai, Aug 11 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President M.K. Stalin has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of converting the Election Commission of India (ECI) into a “poll-rigging machinery” and alleged that large-scale voter fraud had been committed in Karnataka’s Mahadevapura constituency.

CM Stalin said on Monday that the incident was not an administrative lapse but a “calculated conspiracy” to subvert the people’s mandate.

He pointed to evidence presented by Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, which he said exposed the scale of the alleged malpractice, terming it “vote theft”.

According to Stalin, the findings revealed a systematic effort to manipulate voter rolls and influence election outcomes in favour of the BJP.

On Monday, Rahul Gandhi is leading Members of Parliament from the opposition INDIA bloc in a march from Parliament House to the Election Commission of India headquarters in New Delhi. The demonstration is aimed at pressing for immediate reforms to safeguard electoral integrity.

CM Stalin outlined three key demands that include the immediate release of complete machine-readable voter rolls for every state, an end to politically motivated deletions from electoral rolls and an independent probe into what he called the “subversion of democracy”.

The Chief Minister said, “BJP has turned the Election Commission into its poll-rigging machinery. What happened in Mahadevapura is not an accident — it is a deliberate plan to steal the people’s mandate,” CM Stalin said on his X handle. “We will not watch in silence while the BJP robs India’s democracy in broad daylight.”

He stressed that the issue went beyond Karnataka, warning that similar voter list manipulations could be taking place across the country ahead of upcoming elections.

CM Stalin also accused the ruling party at the Centre of using the Election Commission as a tool for partisan gains rather than ensuring free and fair polls.

The DMK chief reaffirmed his party’s solidarity with the INDIA bloc’s campaign to protect democratic institutions, stating that it “stands shoulder to shoulder” in the fight against electoral malpractice.

The ECI has yet to respond to the latest allegations. The controversy is expected to intensify political sparring between the opposition and the BJP in the run-up to the next round of elections.

–IANS

aal/dpb