Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday claimed that the party has “open and shut proof” of the Election Commission being involved in “vote theft”, reported ANI.

Hours later, the poll panel claimed that the allegations that Gandhi made were “baseless” and asked its officials to ignore the “irresponsible remarks”, according to PTI.

Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, Gandhi said: “Most importantly, whoever in the Elections Commission is involved in this exercise, right from top to bottom, we will not spare you.”

“You are working against India and this is no less than treason,” added the leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha.

He said that the party will find tainted officials “even if you are retired”.

The Congress leader also claimed that the evidence that his party has on alleged poll irregularities is like an “atom bomb”, reported PTI.

“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 poll panel stated in response.

Gandhi and the Congress have repeatedly alleged that there was “industrial-scale rigging involving the capture of our national institutions” in the Maharashtra polls held in November.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance had defeated the Maha Vikas Aghadi, which includes the Congress, in the polls.

On July 23, Gandhi also claimed that the Congress had “caught a huge theft” in Karnataka, which he will show in “black and white” to the Election Commission.

Alleging that “vote theft” took place in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Congress leader had on June 24 demanded the immediate release of machine-readable digital voter rolls and CCTV footage.

This came after a Newslaundry report, which said that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ constituency saw an 8% increase in voters between the Lok Sabha elections, held in May and June 2024, and the Assembly polls.

In February, the Congress had urged the Election Commission to explain how the number of registered voters (9.7 crore) for the Maharashtra Assembly polls was more than the adult population of the state (9.5 crore).

At the time, Gandhi had also urged the poll panel to explain why more voters were added to the state’s electoral rolls in the period between the Lok Sabha election and the Assembly polls than in the preceding five years.

The Election Commission had then said that attempts to defame it by parties that got an unfavourable verdict from voters were “completely absurd”.