Bengaluru: A case of electoral fraud has been registered by police here following a complaint alleging large-scale inclusion of fake voters in the Mahadevapura Assembly Constituency voter rolls in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
According to the FIR, the complainant, Y Vinoda (39), resident of Nallurhalli in Bengaluru, alleged that unidentified officials and private individuals had fraudulently inserted fake names into the constituency’s electoral rolls.
Vinoda said a substantial number of fake voters were added to the Mahadevapura voter list during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls under the Bengaluru Central Parliamentary Constituency, which she claimed appeared to have subverted the public mandate.
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had, in a press conference he held in New Delhi on August 7, 2025, alleged that there were 1,00,250 fake voters in the Mahadevapura assembly constituency, including duplications, large number of voters registered at a single address, and so on. He had also asked the Congress-led Karnataka government to probe the matter further.
However, sources said that the Representation of the People’s Act, 1951, clearly states that only election officials can lodge a police complaint regarding suspected election and voter fraud and not anyone else.
The Andhra Pradesh government had formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe an FIR registered based on a complaint lodged by a Telugu Desam Party MLA alleging voter fraud in his constituency. It was withdrawn after the Election Commission of India (ECI) objected to the same.
On September 18, 2025, Mr. Gandhi also flagged alleged voter fraud in Aland. The Karnataka government has formed a SIT to probe this. In the Aland case, the Returning Officer of the Aland assembly constituency had complained, based on which an FIR was registered in February 2023.
