Bengaluru, Aug 8 (IANS) Responding to Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi that he has exposed voter fraud in Mahadevapura Assembly constituency in Bengaluru, the Karnataka BJP said on Friday that the party has consistently recorded a rise in vote share in the constituency.

Addressing a press conference at the state BJP headquarters “Jagannath Bhavan” on Thursday, former Minister and BJP leader Arvind Limbavali said: “We have contested elections in Mahadevapura in a legitimate and systematic manner. The BJP has had natural growth there. Rahul Gandhi should try to understand this. Until recently, he was blaming the EVMs. Now he’s targeting the voters’ list.”

Arvind Limbavali is the husband of BJP MLA Manjula Arvind Limbavali, who represents the Mahadevapura Assembly seat.

“Rahul Gandhi has alleged that the BJP, in collusion with the Election Commission, has committed malpractice and presented a power point presentation specifically regarding Mahadevapura. He claimed there are 40,009 fake and invalid votes; 10,452 bulk voters at the same address; misuse of Form 6 (new voters) with 33,692 entries; and 11,965 duplicate voters. He also mentioned 4,132 voters with unclear or improper photographs and cited seven such instances,” BJP leader Limbavali added.

“A reality check was done. For example, one Gurukirit Singh’s name appeared four times in the voters’ list because he applied multiple times for inclusion, all of which were rejected. Still, his name appeared in different places, and he later applied for deletion three times,” he said.

“In another case Aditya Srivastava, a native of Lucknow, registered there at age of 19. Later, he registered in Mumbai due to his job and eventually voted in Bengaluru. He had also filed a correction request through Form 7. Fake address claims were checked, and 13 people were found. But they weren’t added despite applying. The allegation about bulk voters is false, he claimed. On the claim of double voting, investigation revealed that those voters had voted only once, not twice,” Limbavali added.

Mahadevapura became a new constituency in 2008, carved out of the old Varthur constituency along with K.R. Puram and C.V. Raman Nagar.

Since then, four Assembly and four Lok Sabha elections have taken place in which BJP has won all four.

“In 2008, there were 2,75,328 voters, and 1,46,404 votes were polled,” Limbavali said.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, there were 3,14,000 voters and 1,50,080 votes polled.

In the 2013 Assembly election, the voter count rose to 3,68,210 with 2,26,749 voting.

The BJP leader shared data for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections, and 2019 Lok Sabha elections too.

In the 2023 Assembly polls, there were 6,07,135 voters, with 3,29,841 casting votes.

In 2024 Lok Sabha polls, there were 6,59,733 voters and 3,51,535 voted.

At present, Mahadevapura Assembly constituency has 6,80,514 voters.

“With the growing influx of migrants, the number of voters has increased significantly. There’s also a large number of people who move out of the state. In three Lok Sabha and three Assembly elections, BJP secured more than one lakh votes each time,” Limbavali noted.

“The BJP’s vote share has steadily risen. In the 2019 election, BJP’s P.C. Mohan won by 69,974 votes. From Mahadevapura alone, BJP had a lead of 72,559 votes. This time, Mahadevapura gave a lead of 1,14,046 votes, and P.C. Mohan won by a margin of 32,707 votes,” he said.

Limbavali added that Rahul Gandhi gave incorrect information to the media on Thursday.

“He said Congress led in seven Assembly seats and BJP won only because of the lead in Mahadevapura. That’s a lie. In the last Lok Sabha polls, BJP led in four Assembly seats — Rajajinagar, Gandhinagar, CV Raman Nagar, and Mahadevapura,” he clarified.

“We secured victory with leads in four constituencies and won with a margin of 32,707 votes,” he said.

“Mahadevapura is growing rapidly. In 2016–17, there were 1,48,743 properties, and BBMP collected Rs 361 crore in taxes. In 2024–25, the property count is 3,59,468 and tax collection is Rs 885 crore.”

“One day, I’ll ask Chief Minister Siddaramaiah what he has given to this constituency in return for all the taxes paid,” the BJP leader added.

If panchayat areas are included the constituency has more than five lakh properties, he said.

“Rahul Gandhi, citing the Mahadevapura example, has claimed that vote theft occurred in one Lok Sabha seat and extended that to 25 seats across the country.”

“If you’re beginning your national campaign with Mahadevapura, should we welcome your statement or doubt your understanding of facts?” Limbavali added.

He highlighted that in Varuna constituency’s (represented by CM Siddaramaiah) Part No. 8, there’s a house numbered “00”.

He provided documentation and asked, “If that’s the case, isn’t even Siddaramaiah’s seat tainted?”

The BJP leader added, “This is just one example. I didn’t even get six months like Rahul Gandhi — I prepared all this in just 24 hours,” he told reporters.

–IANS

mka/khz