Athawale dismisses Rahul Gandhi’s vote theft allegations as baseless

Union Minister Ramdas Athawale on Thursday dismissed Congress leader Rahul Gandhirsquos fresh allegations of vote manipulation as ldquobaselessrdquo stating that omissions from voter lists have occurred during Congress regimes as well reported news agency PTIThe Republican Party of India A chief said ldquoRahul Gandhi often makes contradictory statements sometimes he says voters were added and other times he claims voter deletionsEarlier in the day Gandhi who currently serves as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of shielding those responsible for destroying democracy He cited data from a Karnataka Assembly constituency alleging that votes of Congress supporters were being systematically removed ahead of electionsIn response Athawale said that names disappearing from electoral rolls is not new and has also occurred under Congressled governments in the pastThis problem did not arise during the current government said the Union Minister of State for Social Justice and EmpowermentThe Election Commission has clarified that the names of the voters cannot be deleted online Athawale said adding that it is not the case that only the names of those who vote for the Opposition go missing reported news agency PTIIf Gandhi has any evidence he should provide it to the Election Commission he said asserting that names are not deleted from voter lists deliberatelyAs to Gandhis claim that voters from OBC minority and tribal communities were being deleted Athawale said it was a divisive tactic meant to create rifts in societyIn Maharashtra most Dalit votes now go to the BJPled Mahayuti alliance and tribal and Dalit communities have supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi ever since he came to power he saidThe BJP governments in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have chief ministers from the OBC and tribal communities respectively while there is a Brahmin chief minister in Rajasthan said Athawale himself a prominent Dalit leader from MaharashtraGhuspaithiya Bachao Yatra Amit Shah targets Rahul Gandhi over Voter Adhikar YatraUnion Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday lambasted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over the allegation of vote theft calling his Voter Adhikar Yatra a Ghuspaithiya Bachao Yatra Save the Infiltrators MarchInteracting with Bharatiya Janata Party BJP workers in Rohtas the Union Minister accused the Congress party of ignoring development issues and instead working to protect illegal infiltrators from BangladeshAddressing the gathering Shah said They Congress spread a false narrative every time Rahul Gandhi did a Yatra The topic of his yatra was not vote theft The topic was not good education employment electricity roads The topic of the tour was saving the infiltrators who have come from Bangladesh Have any of you lost their votes This was Rahul Gandhis Ghuspaithiya Bachao YatraQuestioning the relevance of the Congresss yatra Shah asked Should infiltrators have the right to vote or free rations Should infiltrators get jobs houses treatment up to 5 lakh rupees Instead of our youth this Rahul Baba and company are giving jobs to vote bank infiltratorsWith inputs from agencies