Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday stepped up his ‘vote chori’ (vote theft) attack against the BJP and the Election Commission, alleging massive voter fraud in the 2024 Haryana assembly elections. He said that the two would try every bit possible to collude to “steal” votes in the Assembly elections in Bihar too, which will go to first phase of voting on Thursday.
Armed with what he called “100 per cent proof”, the Congress MP claimed that 25 lakh fake votes, or about 12 per cent of the state’s electorate, were cast. He alleged there was “systemic manipulation” to turn a Congress victory into defeat.
“Haryana has 2 crore voters, and 25 lakh of them are fake,” Gandhi said at a press conference in Delhi, adding that his team had uncovered 5.21 lakh duplicate voter entries. “One in every eight voters in Haryana is fake.”
The Congress leader presented slides showing alleged discrepancies in voter rolls, including a striking example: a Brazilian model’s photograph reportedly appearing multiple times in the electoral rolls under different names like Seema, Sweety, and Saraswati, allegedly to cast ballots 22 times.
Gandhi accused the BJP of orchestrating a “planned operation” to subvert the democratic process.
“All exit polls pointed to a Congress victory in Haryana,” he said. “For the first time in Haryana’s history, postal ballots didn’t match the actual votes. This had never happened before. A plan was put in motion to convert Congress’ landslide victory into a loss.”
He also took a swipe at Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Saini, pointing to a post-election video.
“Please notice the smile on his face and the ‘vyavastha’ (arrangement) he is talking about,” Gandhi said. “This is two days after the election, when everyone was saying Congress was sweeping.”
‘BJP INFILTRATORS’
He further alleged that thousands of BJP workers and leaders were registered to vote in both Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
“A BJP leader living at house no.150 — the vice chairman of Palwal Zila Parishad — has 66 voters registered at his address. One man has 500 voters registered at his home,” he claimed.
Naming others, the Congress MP said, “Dalchand, a BJP leader, is voting in both UP and Haryana. BJP sarpanch in Mathura, Prahlad, is doing the same. The number is in the thousands.”
Gandhi also pointed to irregularities involving addresses listed as ‘House no. Zero’, a designation meant for the homeless.
“We physically found men marked as House no. Zero who were actually living in their homes,” he said. “We cross-checked. The chief election commissioner is lying to the people of India. This is not a mistake and not about homeless people.”
‘ABKI BAAR, BIHAR?’
Asserting that his allegations were backed by verified data, the Gandhi scion said he was “questioning not just the EC, but the democratic process itself”. He repeated his charge that the poll body and the BJP were in cahoots.
“Why is the ECI not removing duplicates? If they do, it will make for fair elections. But the EC doesn’t want fair polls,” he claimed. “This is crystal clear proof of what the BJP is doing — and that the EC is helping them.”
The Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition alleged that the BJP, with the EC’s backing, will follow the same ‘sarkar chori’ (stolen government) playbook in Bihar, which goes to polls tomorrow.
“Today, I introduced the world to some people from Dharampur village in Jamui district of Bihar—what’s happening to them is the most heartbreaking and shameful tragedy for democracy. Despite submitting forms and necessary documents, the names of many villagers were removed from the voter list without any notice or reason,” Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet.
The former Congress chief said that in Bihar’s villages, hundreds have been robbed of their democratic right to vote.
Referring to one differently-abled citizen, like Dilip Yadav—whose entire family was marked “absent”—and others like Sunita Devi, Bunty Kumar, and Qayam Ansari, he said they shared the same fate with their names erased, their complaints ignored.
“Many old names were forcibly erased, and the names of many first-time young voters weren’t even added—hundreds of people have been pushed out of democracy. Because they are Dalits, backward classes, or minorities. Because they probably won’t vote for the BJP and its NDA allies,” Rahul added.
“This is the real vote theft—erasing people’s voices, rights, and very presence. And this isn’t just Dharampur; it’s become the story of every village in Bihar,” he said, while adding that his fight against vote theft and to safeguard the principle of ‘one person, one vote’ will continue.
Earlier in the day, touching on the controversial poll roll revision process that took place, Rahul Gandhi said, “In Bihar, many voters were deleted from the list. But they can be found at their address. They ask why Congress polling agents don’t raise the issue sooner. The reason is that we get the voter list at the very last minute of election.”
Sources in the Election Commission dismissed Rahul Gandhi’s claims, saying there had been zero appeals filed against the state’s electoral rolls. They added that only 22 election petitions were currently pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court out of 90 assembly seats, indicating limited legal challenge to the results.
In its rebuttal, the poll body also remarked that if duplicate entries existed, it was unclear how Gandhi could assert that such voters had supported the BJP, suggesting instead that these voters may have voted for the Congress.
– Ends
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