The Congress party, which has been repeatedly accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Election Commission of 'collusion' to indulge in electoral fraud before the Bihar assembly elections, suffered an unexpected internal setback. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said a 'fraud' had cost him a Lok Sabha election in 1991.
Thirty-four years ago, Siddaramaiah was the Janata Dal Secular (JDS) candidate for the Koppal constituency in northern Karnataka. His opponent was the incumbent, Basavaraj Patil Anwari, who had won the seat on a Janata Dal (Secular) ticket in the 1989 election before defecting to the Congress for the 1991 poll. Anwari was credited with 241,000 votes, winning by a narrow margin of less than 11,200.
Siddaramaiah subsequently filed a case in the Karnataka High Court, questioning the counting officials’ decision to reject 22,243 votes, a number he claimed would have secured his victory. The now-Congress leader also argued that Anwari's candidacy was illegal because he had been disqualified from the previous Lok Sabha by the Speaker on grounds of defection. According to Siddaramaiah, this disqualification meant that Anwari was "permanently disqualified" from membership of the Lower House.
In what may have been an unfortunate, or perhaps ill-timed, reference to this episode, Siddaramaiah brought it up during an event in Bengaluru to honour former Karnataka Advocate General Ravivarma Kumar. "I seek guidance from Ravivarma Kumar whenever I face legal hurdles. In 1991, I contested the election and was defeated by fraud. Then Ravivarma Kumar helped me..." he said.
The BJP, which has been under pressure from the Congress and other members of the INDIA opposition bloc over 'voter fraud' allegations in the Karnataka and Maharashtra elections, as well as the 'special intensive revision' process in Bihar, seized on the comment.
In a series of posts on X, Amit Malviya poured scorn on the Congress. "This video is proof — the same man who once fought against Congress' 'vote chori' is today their Chief Minister and is leading a 'Vote Adhikar' rally. The irony is so thick... it is not lost on the people of Bharat," he wrote. He went on to say, "Back then, he (Siddaramaiah) cried 'vote chori' because he lost on ballot papers. Now, Rahul Gandhi is crying wolf about 'electoral fraud'... only because the people of India have decisively thrown the Congress out of power through the democratic process and un-hackable EVMs."
The BJP's R Ashoka, the Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly, accused the Congress of having "deceitfully defeated" Siddaramaiah. He also brought up another, potentially damaging, statement from former Congress leader CM Ibrahim, who is now with the JDS. Ibrahim had accused the Congress of having 'bought' 3,000 votes for the 2018 Assembly election from the Badami seat, which Siddaramaiah won by a margin of less than 2,000 votes against the BJP's B Sriramulu. Last week, BJP MP Lahar Singh Siroya had demanded that the Election Commission investigate Ibrahim's claim.
The Congress, for its part, has sought to play down Siddaramaiah's comments. Rizwan Arshad, the Shivajinagar MLA, said, "The BJP is unnecessarily raising something that happened 30 years ago to defend themselves." He added, "Siddaramaiah is talking about issues between then MLAs of the JDS. But now the Election Commission is controlled by the BJP".
This entire episode comes at a difficult time for the Congress as it attempts to intensify its pressure on the BJP and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) ahead of an election expected in November. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav are currently leading a cross-state 'Vote Adhikar' rally, where multiple opposition leaders, including Siddaramaiah, have made speeches. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and his Telangana counterpart, Revanth Reddy, have also made appearances and delivered speeches that specifically target the BJP and the Election Commission over the ongoing Bihar voter list controversy.
Also read: Siddaramaiah to join Rahul Gandhi’s Vote Adhikar Yatra in Bihar
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