Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi are leading a 'Vote Adhikar Rally' in Bengaluru today, August 8, 2025. The rally is a protest against alleged electoral fraud during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The event, titled "Our Vote, Our Right, Our Struggle," is taking place at Freedom Park in Bengaluru at 10:30 am.

The Congress party is using Karnataka as a launchpad for a movement against alleged electoral fraud. The party aims to demonstrate its strength and raise concerns about voter irregularities, with the intention of building momentum for a larger national campaign against what it describes as a threat to the democratic process.

Rahul Gandhi stated that the party's internal assessment indicated it would win 16 seats in the state, but it only secured nine. He highlighted the Bengaluru Central constituency, specifically the Mahadevapura assembly segment, as an example of "vote theft". Gandhi said that while Congress led in six of the seven assembly segments under Bengaluru Central, it lost in Mahadevapura by over 114,000 votes. The party claims that the BJP secured 658,915 votes in Bengaluru Central, while the Congress polled 626,208 – a margin of 32,707 votes.

Gandhi also claimed that the voter list in Mahadevapura revealed suspicious patterns, including instances of 80 voters registered at a single address and 46 unrelated people listed under another. He also alleged the presence of 11,965 duplicate voters and 40,009 entries linked to fake or invalid addresses.

Following Gandhi's allegations, Randeep Singh Surjewala alleged that the Election Commission of India (ECI) is colluding with the BJP and destroying democracy and the Constitution. Surjewala said that Karnataka will be the launchpad for their resistance and that they will expose the fraud.

Preparations for the rally included a meeting attended by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Congress State President and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar, Congress general secretary and Karnataka in charge Randeep Singh Surjewala, and other party leaders and ministers. The party is using the voting pattern and voter list in the Mahadevapura assembly segment as a sample to prove its point. The rally is expected to draw over one lakh participants from across Karnataka. District leaders were instructed to send at least 50 members each, including ministers, MLAs, and candidates who lost the polls.