Bhopal, Aug 9 (IANS) Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Saturday countered the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) reference to a 2018 petition filed by the state Congress unit, saying it is misleading to cite the case in response to Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s recent allegations of fake voters.

Kamal Nath’s media advisor and former journalist, Piyush Babele, said the Supreme Court had dismissed the MP Congress’s petition only after the ECI acknowledged irregularities and removed over 24 lakh duplicate entries from the electoral rolls ahead of the 2018 Assembly elections.

“Citing Kamal Nath-led MP Congress’s petition to discredit Rahul Gandhi’s allegations is wrong. The petition was rejected because the ECI had already accepted the irregularities and acted upon them,” Babele said.

He added that Rahul Gandhi’s concerns echo those raised by Kamal Nath in 2018, and called for a nationwide audit of voter rolls to ensure electoral integrity.

“ECI should rise above politics and act on the truth revealed by Rahul Gandhi,” Babele said.

The ECI, in its response to LoP Rahul Gandhi’s allegations on Friday, had cited the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee’s (MPCC) 2018 petition challenging the presence of illegal voters. The Commission noted that the Supreme Court had found no merit in the petition and dismissed it.

In 2018, Kamal Nath had approached the apex court alleging multiple entries of the same individuals, some appearing up to 36 times, based on data sourced from a private website. The ECI, however, argued that the discrepancies had already been corrected prior to the petition, leading to its dismissal.

Responding to LoP Rahul Gandhi’s recent claims, the ECI said, “If Rahul Gandhi believes in his analysis and stands by his allegations, he should respect the law and either sign the declaration or apologise to the nation for making baseless accusations against the ECI.”

–IANS

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