New Delhi: The Congress Sunday said the Election Commission must ensure full transparency and stop acting like an “agent of the BJP”, as party chief Mallikarjun Kharge accused the poll body of having “stonewalled crucial information” and “shielding” those behind alleged “vote chori”.

Kharge shared on X a media report which claimed the case related to an attempt to remove electors by allegedly forging Form 7 ahead of the Karnataka Assembly election in 2023 has gone cold since the Election Commission of India is yet to share crucial data needed to nab the accused.

There was no immediate response from the Election Commission on the charges, but the poll body has in the past dismissed all such claims by the Congress as “baseless”.

Is the ECI now “BJP’s back-office for vote chori”? Kharge asked.

“Understand the chronology. Ahead of the May 2023 Karnataka elections, the Congress had exposed a massive deletion of voters: in the Aland Constituency. Thousands of voters were stripped of their rights through a very sophisticated operation of forging Form 7 applications,” he alleged.

“In February 2023, a case was filed. The probe revealed 5,994 forged applications — clear evidence of a massive attempt at voter fraud. The Congress government then ordered a CID probe to catch the culprits.”

The Congress chief said, “But here’s the twist: while ECI had earlier shared part of the documents needed to trace the forgery, it has now stonewalled the crucial information, effectively shielding those behind the Vote Chori!”

“Why has the ECI suddenly blocked vital evidence?” he asked.

“Who is it protecting? BJP’s Vote Chori department? Is the ECI bending under BJP pressure to derail the CID probe?” the Congress chief posed.

Individual’s right to vote needs to be protected, Indian democracy needs to be protected, Kharge asserted.

Sharing the same media report, Congress general secretary K C Venugopal accused the ECI of blocking crucial documents in the Karnataka CID investigation on “fraudulent voter deletion” in Aland constituency.

He said this again “proves their culpability in hiding crucial evidence that proves mass-scale vote rigging”.

The Karnataka government has been conducting its investigation based on the ECI’s documents, which form the bedrock of all elections in India, the Congress leader said on X.

“For the ECI to withhold evidence is against their Constitutional responsibility of ensuring free and fair elections. They must ensure full transparency and stop acting like an agent of the BJP,” Venugopal said.

“This proves that the opposition’s warnings are being proven right. The ECI and BJP are hand in glove in orchestrating a daylight robbery of votes. The ECI cannot evade accountability anymore; they must answer to the people of India for colluding in this crime against democracy.”

He also said the ECI must answer why they are “silent” despite multiple demands for transparency from the opposition.

“What pressure from the BJP has forced them to take this confrontational stance? Since the Supreme Court has already castigated the ECI for withholding information regarding SIR, why is it continuing to oppose calls for transparency?” Venugopal posed.