The Election Commission on Friday termed as "baseless" the allegations made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi that the poll authority was indulging in "vote theft" for BJP and asked its officials to ignore such "irresponsible" remarks.
Continuing his campaign against the Election Commission, Gandhi had claimed to have "open and shut" evidence of alleged poll irregularities by the poll authority and said that it would have no place to hide.
"The Election Commission ignores such baseless allegations being made on a daily basis, and despite the daily threats being given, asks all election officials to ignore such irresponsible statements and work in a fair and transparent manner," the EC said in response to the comments made by Gandhi.
Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, likened the evidence that his party has on alleged poll irregularities to an "atom bomb", and said that when it explodes the Election Commission will have no place to hide in the country.
"I have said 'vote chori' is happening and now we have open and shut proof that the Election Commission is involved in 'vote chori'," Gandhi told reporters in the Parliament House complex.
"I am not saying this lightly. I am saying this with 100 per cent proof. As soon as we release it the whole country would know that EC is indulging in 'vote chori'. It is doing it for the BJP," he said.
Gandhi said his party had suspicions of poll irregularities in Madhya Pradesh assembly polls in 2023, then in the Lok Sabha polls and this went further in Maharashtra.
"We believe that vote theft has happened at the state level (in Maharashtra). Voter revision had happened and crore voters were added. Then we went into detail seeing that the EC is not helping and decided to dig deep into this," he said.
"We got our own investigation done, it took six months and what we have found is an atom bomb. When it explodes, the EC would have no place to hide in the country," Gandhi said.
The Congress leader also warned that those people in the EC who are involved in this, right from the top to the bottom, should remember that they will not be spared because they are "working against India".
"This is treason, nothing less than that. You may be retired, you may be anywhere, we will find you," Gandhi said.
The Congress leader's remarks came after he, along with leaders of several Opposition parties, wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, urging him to schedule a special discussion on the ongoing voter list revision in Bihar without any further delay.
In their letter to Birla, the Opposition MPs expressed deep concern over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar, especially a few months before the state assembly elections.
The opposition has been protesting in both Houses of Parliament against the SIR, alleging the EC's exercise was aimed at "disenfranchising voters" in Bihar ahead of the Assembly elections. They have been demanding a discussion on the issue in both Houses.