NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday accused Congress of pursuing “shoot and scoot” politics after the party claimed that the Election Commission had decided to provide “readable” electoral rolls to political parties because the whole nation was on the streets against the “vote chors”.BJP spokesperson Pradip Bhandari said Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi was yet to file a formal complaint or submit an affidavit over his allegations last year about the entry of “1 lakh bogus voters” in Karnataka’s Mahadevapura assembly segment, while pitching for searchable electoral rolls.This comes after Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said Rahul Gandhi and the grand old party had been “persistent, insistent and consistent” in demanding that the EC provide electoral rolls in a searchable format to all political parties for over two years.“The demand was repeatedly refused by the ECI, which stopped providing searchable voter rolls in 2018 when Congress found lakhs of bogus voters in Madhya Pradesh. The demand was denied for 8 years to enable Vote Chori,” Congress general secretary in charge of communications Ramesh alleged in a post on X.Ramesh said the EC issued an order on October 15 stating that electoral rolls would be provided in a searchable format to political parties for the Special Summary Revision (SSR), which had “resumed after a gap of two years in 17 states and UTs”.“This is because the whole nation is on the streets against the Vote Chors,” he claimed, alleging, “Every time Vote Chori is caught, the Modi govt adopts a new tactic: stopping readable voter rolls, fake voter additions, SIR. But not this time.”
Countering Ramesh, Bhandari said Rahul Gandhi had alleged the entry of “1 lakh bogus voters” in Karnataka’s Mahadevapura assembly segment while pitching for searchable electoral rolls, but was yet to file a formal complaint or submit an affidavit in this connection.“Mr Jairam Ramesh, your tweet explains that you are under confident with respect your case in Supreme Court,” Bhandari said.“Rahul Gandhi last year accused of 1 Lakh bogus entry in Mahadevpura, while pitching for searchable electoral roll; he has till date not given a formal complaint, nor an affidavit. Stop the politics of shoot & scoot!” he added.This comes after Rahul Gandhi, along with other opposition parties, filed a petition in the Supreme Court on October 12, alleging large-scale voter deletions and irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.