Bengaluru: The Karnataka Congress Friday hit back at the BJP for “falsely peddling” a survey to suggest that a majority of respondents in the state trusted electronic voting machines (EVMs) and believed polls are free and fair. The BJP, claimed the ruling party in Karnataka, also portrayed the Election Commission survey as a “state government survey”.
Karnataka’s Minister for Information Technology Priyank Kharge said the survey was commissioned by the Election Commission of India (ECI) through the state chief electoral officer.
“Survey conducted by a Modi’s man who works in the PMO and has authored a lavish tribute to the PM. Survey conducted in May 2025. Detailed #VoteChori exposé by the Congress came out in August 2025,” he wrote in a post on X.
He added that the report, titled Lok Sabha Elections 2024-Evaluation of Endline Survey of KAP (Knowledge, Attitude and Practice) of Citizens, covered only 50 respondents per assembly constituency which was “statistically weak, prone to wide sampling error and selection bias and not suitable for drawing conclusions”.
Survey commissioned by the Election Commission through State Chief Electoral Officer.
Survey conducted by a Modi’s man who works in the PMO and has authored a lavish tribute to the PM.
Survey conducted in May 2025.
Detailed #VoteChori exposé by the Congress came out in August… pic.twitter.com/Pzaxznfv31— Priyank Kharge / ಪ್ರಿಯಾಂಕ್ ಖರ್ಗೆ (@PriyankKharge) January 2, 2026
Despite Kharge’s claims, the BJP continued to use the findings of the report to attack Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and the Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka government over the Congress’s allegations of mass vote theft across constituencies in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. In the first week of August last year, Gandhi held a press conference to hammer his point about alleged voter list manipulation, fake voter addresses and other irregularities in Bengaluru’s Mahadevapura assembly segment.
He alleged that as many as 1,00,250 entries in the voter list of Mahadevapura segment were manipulated, among other places across the country, which helped the BJP win close battles in several constituencies and eventually retain power.
He had alleged that a single home, no bigger than a car shed, had more than 80 voters registered to emphasise on the voter list manipulation. The ‘vote chori’ narrative has evolved into the Congress party’s central poll plank against the Modi government.
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What does the survey state
The findings were based on the survey of around 50 people per assembly constituency.
The survey concludes that “84.55 percent of respondents believe that elections are free/fair” and that “83.61 percent of respondents trust EVM accuracy”.
The BJP claimed the survey report “published by the Government of Karnataka” contradicts Gandhi’s allegations.
“This study was commissioned by the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka through the Karnataka Monitoring and Evaluation Authority (KMEA), an independent body under the Planning Department of the Government of Karnataka. It was conducted through a competitive process by KMEA, not by the Election Commission of India,” Amit Malviya, the BJPs information and technology wing chief, said in a post on X.
He added that Gandhi was playing the “politics of manufactured distrust”.
B.Y. Vijayendra, the BJP state president, said in a post on X, “The survey report published by the Government of Karnataka clearly shows that a decisive majority of our people believe elections in India are conducted freely and fairly.
“This is a direct blow to @RahulGandhi, who, unable to accept @INCIndia repeated electoral failures, chose to invent the ‘Vote Chori’ narrative and launch a reckless campaign casting doubts on the Election Commission.”
Congress’ “Vote Chori” stands exposed once again!
The survey report published by the Government of Karnataka clearly shows that a decisive majority of our people believe elections in India are conducted freely and fairly. This is a direct blow to @RahulGandhi , who unable to… pic.twitter.com/guluqakrEj
— Vijayendra Yediyurappa (@BYVijayendra) January 2, 2026
CM Siddaramaiah in a long post on X wrote: “This was not a political opinion poll. It was an end-line administrative evaluation of voter awareness under SVEEP programmes, commissioned by the Election Commission of India and conducted in May 2025.”
Over the last 24 hours, an Election Commission survey has been selectively used to manufacture a misleading narrative – suggesting that serious concerns about electoral malpractice raised by Shri @RahulGandhi are somehow “disproved”. This claim collapses the moment the survey is… pic.twitter.com/HOF1ZsunQg
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) January 2, 2026
The survey shows that a significant proportion of respondents believes the influence of money in elections is increasing, with 44.90 percent ‘agreeing’ and 4.65 percent ‘strongly agreeing’ overall. Results varied across the four broad divisions—Mysuru, Belagavi, Kalaburagi, Bengaluru.
The percentage of respondents agreeing to the proposition that the influence of money was growing was 51.33 in Bengaluru, while it was the lowest in Belagavi at 24.86.
Similarly, more than 40.84 percent of respondents across divisions believed that the influence of muscle power was growing in elections.
“The Mysuru division recorded the highest agreement at 57.17 percent, followed by the Bengaluru division with 46.89 percent, indicating a stronger belief in the growing role of muscle power. In contrast, Belagavi division showed the lowest agreement at 15.61 percent and the highest disagreement at 68.57 percent, reflecting strong skepticism,” according to the survey.
There was also the problem of duplication of entries, which the survey mentioned as a growing concern. “Among tribal communities, document verification challenges were common due to the absence of standard identity proofs, resulting in duplicate entries or mismatches in electoral rolls,” the survey stated.
It added that migration and incomplete documentation led to inaccuracies such as duplicate or outdated entries in the electoral rolls.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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