Bengaluru: Embarrassed over a survey indicating that the Karnataka voters reposed their faith with EVM, the Congress government in the State has deleted the survey report from the government website.
The survey initiated by the Election Commission called Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) and executed by the Karnataka Monitoring and Evaluation Authority (KMEA) coming under Planning Department had revealed that 94.08 percent of the voters had faith in accuracy of the EVMs used during 2024 General Elections to Parliament.
Though the report was published by the Planning Department's website way back in Aug 2025 and even the government press had printed it in the form of a book, the survey came to light only in January. This was an embarrassment to the Congress government, which is banking on `Vote Chori' allegations in a big way in the country and more importantly, in two Assembly segments of Karnataka.
Soon after deleting the report on the website, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that the report had no bearing on the ongoing `Vote Chori' movement. Later, Siddaramaiah took to the X handle and said: During the last 24 hours, an Election Commission survey has been selectively used to manufacture a misleading narrative -- suggesting that serious concerns about electoral malpractice by Rahul Gandhi are somehow `disproved'. This claim collapses the moment the survey is examined honestly.
This was not a political opinion poll. It was an end-line administrative evaluation of voter awareness under the SVEEP program. He also questioned the NGO GRAAM, founded by Dr R Balasubramaniam, who holds a Union Government appointed position and authored a book praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
BJP was quick to react to Siddaramaiah. Senior BJP leader Amit Malviya pointed out that though the Chief Election Commission had commissioned the study, it was done through KMEA, an independent body under Karnataka Government's Planning Department.
The agency that conducted the survey was selected by KMEA through a competitive process and not by the Election Commission of India.
Rahul Gandhi's `vote chori' claim is a fabricated narrative. These manufactured bogeys are raised to keep himself relevant in politics and he is in full control of the Congress affairs, fearing that his leadership would otherwise come under serious question.
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