Overview

• OPCC President Bhakta Charan Das kicked off the Mashal Yatra on August 14 to highlight alleged voter-list irregularities and uphold the mandate of the 2024 Assembly elections.
• Das questioned why the BJD’s 51-seat Assembly victory failed to yield a single Lok Sabha seat, contrasting it with Congress’s proportional gains in 2009.
• Rahul Gandhi has accused the BJP and ECI of registering duplicate voters at single addresses and orchestrating a “massive theft of votes” in Karnataka’s Mahadevapura segment.
• The Election Commission maintains that it will only investigate if complainants file sworn affidavits with specific names and evidence under Conduct of Election Rules.
• The Biju Janata Dal plans to approach the Orissa High Court over last year’s alleged voting discrepancies as legal challenges and public demonstrations escalate.