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Has the Congress violated the laws governing the conduct of polls in India by making false promises in the form of a bribe to the voters of this country? Do these false promises, or the alleged duping of the voters led to the surprise upswing in the Congress’ fortunes at the cost of the BJP? Have queues at Congress offices to get ‘promised’ Rs 8,500 after elections exposed an ‘election scam’ and shouldn’t it be probed to restore the sanctity of our electoral process?

These questions need answers as immediately after the poll results were announced on June 4, long queues were reported from various Congress offices as well as at certain post offices across the country. These queues mainly comprised women and the poor who were claiming that the Congress had promised them Rs 8,500 every month after the voting and they were asked to fill out forms. There are also claims that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s digital signatures were on forms that promised the money to be deposited in the accounts of the poor.

In this context, an interesting petition has been submitted to the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, which seeks the disqualification of all 99 MPs of the Congress. The petition, submitted by a young lawyer Vibhor Anand needs serious attention as it raises some pertinent points.

As Anand mentions in his petition, two days after the Lok Sabha poll results were announced, i.e. on June 6, 2024, it was reported from various parts of the country that thousands of women lined up outside offices of the Congress to submit Congress Guarantee Card which was had digital signatures of Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, party president. For the last three days, the media has been flooded with videos of thousands of women who stated that the members of the Congress gave this signed guarantee card to them and told them that Rahul Gandhi and Congress would deposit Rs 8,500 per month immediately after June 4.

It is noticed, as the petition says, that the majority of these women who are lining up (at Congress offices) are from the Muslim Community, therefore the possibility of inducing the voters of a particular community through the Congress guarantee card is established beyond doubt. The Elections in the country are governed under the Representation of People Act (RP ACT), 1951.

Section 123 of the RP Act, which deals with the ‘Corrupt Practices’ during Elections says, “Corrupt practices. —the following shall be deemed to be corrupt practices for the purposes of this Act: — [(1) “Bribery” that is to say— (A) Any gift, offer or promise by a candidate or his agent or by any other person with the consent of a candidate or his election agent of any gratification, to any person whomsoever, with the object, directly or indirectly of inducing:

(a)  a person to stand or not to stand as, or 4 [to withdraw or not to withdraw] from being a candidate at an election, or (b) an elector to vote or refrain from voting at an election, or as a reward to— (i) a person for having so stood or not stood, or for 5 [having withdrawn or not having withdrawn] his candidature; or (ii) an elector for having voted or refrained from voting;

(B) The receipt of, or agreement to receive, any gratification, whether as a motive or a reward— (a) By a person for standing or not standing as, or for 6 [withdrawing or not withdrawing] from being, a candidate; or (b) by any person whomsoever for himself or any other person for voting or refraining from voting, or inducing or attempting to induce any elector to vote or refrain from voting, or any candidate 3 [to withdraw or not to withdraw] his candidature.

According to Anand, “A bare reading of Section 123 of RP Act and the contents of the Congress Guarantee Card is enough to establish that the Indian National Congress and its leaders along with all its members resorted to gross corrupt practices to induce female voters by way of Bribery of Rs 8,500 per month/ Rs 1 Lac Per Annum to every female voter.”

In view of the above-mentioned facts and circumstances, it is crystal clear that the Congress and its leaders, along with its members, committed an offence under section 123(1) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, he adds.

The petition has requested the President of India to direct the Election Commission of India to be directed to initiate an inquiry under Section 146 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 against the Indian National Congress Party and its leaders Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Sonia Gandhi along with all the members of Congress involved in Inducing the voters by bribery through the Congress Guarantee Card and disqualify all 99 candidates of the Indian National Congress who got elected to the Lok Sabha.

The petition has quoted several media reports and attached documentary evidence in the form of forms that Congress workers got filled out from the hapless women who were promised money. These kinds of election tactics can undermine the integrity of the electoral process as the other parties could also follow the same suit to imitate the success that it seems to have generated for the Congress party. The allies of Congress in the INDI alliance should also come forward and speak about this. What we have witnessed, it appears, is a daylight election scam! Will the Election Commission of India probe it?

The writer is an author and columnist and has written several books. His X handle is @ArunAnandLive. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.