After K'taka, Rahul Gandhi alleges ‘vote theft’ in Haryana, claims 25L fake voters

New Delhi, Nov 5: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday cited electoral list data from Haryana to claim that 25 lakh entries were “fake” and that the assembly polls last year were “stolen.” He accused the Election Commission (EC) of colluding with the BJP to ensure its victory.

The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said he was questioning the Election Commission and the democratic process in the country, asserting that he was doing so with “100% proof.”

Gandhi alleged that the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the two election commissioners colluded with the BJP to secure its win in Haryana and claimed that “they are in partnership” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The former Congress president said an operation titled ‘Operation Sarkar Chori’ was launched to convert a “landslide Congress victory into a loss” in Haryana.

He also alleged that CEC Gyanesh Kumar was “lying” to the people of India when he stated that house number zero is given to homeless people, calling that explanation false.

Addressing a press conference at the Indira Bhawan here, Gandhi cited the Haryana electoral list to claim that 25,41,144 entries were fake, including multiple examples of duplicate voters, invalid addresses, and bulk voters.

“Why is the Election Commission not removing duplicates? It is because if it does so, it would result in fair elections, and it doesn’t want fair elections,” Gandhi said.

“All polls pointed to a Congress victory in Haryana. The five top exit polls said Congress was sweeping. The other thing that was surprising was that for the first time in Haryana, the postal votes were different from the result. In postal ballots, Congress got 73 seats while the BJP got 17,” he added.

Gandhi further claimed that thousands of people associated with the BJP voted in both Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

During the press conference, Gandhi showed a picture of a woman who, he said, appeared on the voter list 22 times in 10 booths in the Rai assembly constituency — evidence, he claimed, of a “centralised operation.”

He alleged that the picture used for the multiple entries was from a woman in Brazil, saying she represented one of the 25 lakh such fake records in Haryana — proof, he argued, of a coordinated manipulation.

“There were 25,41,144 ‘vote chori’ entries in the list. One in eight voters in Haryana are fake, and despite that, the Congress loses by just 22,779 votes, which was the difference in eight seats,” Gandhi said.

“I was in shock. I simply could not believe what we found. I asked the team to cross-check multiple times. I want young people, Gen Z, to understand this clearly — your future is being stolen,” he said.

Gandhi alleged that a deliberate plan was in motion to convert a Congress landslide into a defeat in Haryana. He also played a video of now Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, who, two days before counting, stated that the BJP would win and “we have a system in place.”

“We suspected, once we did Mahadevapura and Aland, that this was not happening in just one constituency but was being done at the state and national level,” Gandhi said.

EC hits back

Responding to the charges, ECI sources dismissed the allegations as baseless and questioned the Congress’ own vigilance during the electoral process.

“What were the Congress polling agents doing inside polling stations?” a senior official asked.

“Polling agents are required to object if a voter has already voted or if there is a doubt about their identity,” the official said.

Sources said that during the electoral roll revision, Congress Booth Level Agents (BLAs) did not file claims or objections regarding alleged duplicate, shifted or dead voters.

“Why were no claims and objections raised by INC’s BLAs to prevent multiple entries?” ECI sources said, adding that the party also filed no appeals at the revision stage.

In September, Gandhi had accused CEC Kumar of protecting those who “destroyed democracy,” citing data from the Karnataka Assembly constituency Aland to claim that votes of Congress supporters were being systematically deleted ahead of elections.

In August, citing data from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Gandhi had claimed that over one lakh votes were “stolen” through manipulation in the Mahadevapura assembly segment in Karnataka.

With inputs from agencies