Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], November 9 (ANI): Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said that 1.12 crore signatures have been collected across the state as part of the Congress-led signature campaign against vote theft launched by the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

Addressing a press conference at Bharat Jodo Bhavan in Bengaluru, Shivakumar said, 'We have collected signatures from 40 political districts in the state. The campaign went off very well, and we have collected 1,12,40,000 signatures. We have decided to share the signatures with Delhi on November 10. There is a massive rally being planned at Ram Leela Maidan in Delhi on November 25.'

He further stated that the Congress plans to hold corporate elections through ballot papers. 'AICC has informed us that Karnataka is the best-performing state in the signature campaign against vote theft. The credit goes to party leaders who worked hard. I would like to thank Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi for taking up this campaign,' he added.

Speaking on alleged electoral fraud in Aland constituency, the Deputy Chief Minister said, 'There were attempts to remove 6,000 votes from Aland assembly constituency. Attempts were made to remove voters from the list using mobile phone numbers from other states. An SIT investigation was going on. Although the investigators wrote to the Election Commission, no information was provided. It has come to light that Rs 80 was given for every name deleted from the voter list. The SIT report will be out soon.'

'Rahul Gandhi has thrown light on vote theft in Haryana. He has said 25 lakh votes are illegal in the elections there. The fight against vote theft has started in right earnest from Karnataka,' he said.

When asked why the party had not moved court or submitted an affidavit to the Election Commission, Shivakumar said, 'We are seeking supplementary documents from the Election Commission, but they are not giving. Let them give the documents, and then we will submit an affidavit. The media investigated vote fraud in the Mahadevapura constituency and found that more than 84 votes were cast at one address. The Election Commission hasn't done anything about it.'

Asked why the Election Commission was not taking the Congress's complaints seriously, he said, 'We are making our efforts. As many as 300 MPs have made their representation to the Election Commission, but they have not received a response.'

'It is our duty to create awareness about vote theft. We are appointing BLAs for all booths to prevent vote theft. We only know how we have managed to save 15 lakh voters in Karnataka,' he added.

Responding to a question about the voter list revision, he said, 'Why did the Election Commission take up voter list revision after we exposed the voter fraud? Hence, we have decided to use the voter list of the State Election Commission for the local body elections.'

On Rahul Gandhi's demand for CCTV visuals at polling booths, Shivakumar said, 'We are not asking for who the voter voted, we are only asking for how many voters went into a booth. In Maharashtra, several lakh votes were cast in the last one hour; should we not know who voted?' (ANI)