On Friday (8th August), the Election Commission of India (ECI) debunked the lies peddled by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as part of his campaign to undermine the integrity of the nodal election body.

In a video shared by him, Rahul Gandhi posed 5 rhetorical questions before the ECI. These included –

1. Why are you not giving voter lists in digital machine-readable format to the people of India? 
2. Why are you destroying video evidence? 
3. Why is ECI committing massive fraud in the voter lists? 
4. Why is ECI threatening opposition instead of answering our questions? 
5. Why is ECI behaving like an agent of the BJP? 

However, the Congress leader did not expect a point-by-point rebuttal of his falsehoods and vicious propaganda.

❌ The statements made are Misleading #ECIFactCheck

✅Read in detail in the image given👇 https://t.co/K1sKq1DvbU pic.twitter.com/tdqudyoXU2

— Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) August 8, 2025

At the very onset, the Election Commission of India made it clear that the Supreme Court had turned down Congress’ petition for providing machine machine-readable voter list in 2019. As such, the nodal election body is under no compulsion to entertain this demand of the grand-old party.

It pointed out why CCTV footage is destroyed after 45 days and the rationale behind its preservation in specific case.

The Election Commission of India stated, “Any aggrieved Candidate can file an election petition (EP) to challenge his election in the concerned High Court within 45 days. If an EP is filed, CCTV footage is retained; otherwise, it serves no purpose unless someone intends to breach voter privacy. For example, reviewing CCTV footage from 1 lakh polling stations would take 1 lakh days-that’s approximately 273 years-with no legal outcome.”

While responding to the claim of ‘committing mass fraud’, ECI pointed out how almost no appeals were made by the Congress party across 36 States and Union Territories, following the 2024 Lok Sabha election. This was despite the fact that the grand-old party had the legal sanction to challenge the nodal election body.

The Election Commission further stated, “Many such allegations are being made by Shri Rahul Gandhi and are being reported by the media, despite no written complaint ever being submitted by him. In the past as well, he has never personally sent a self-signed letter. For example, he raised the Maharashtra issue in December 2024. Subsequently, an advocate from AICC wrote to ECI. Our reply, dated 24 December 2024, is publicly available on ECI website. Yet, Shri Rahul Gandhi claims that ECI never responded.”

The nodal election body has therefore requested the Congress leader to submit his specific claims and objections against voters and sign the Declaration/Oath as per Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.

“If Shri Rahul Gandhi does not sign the Declaration, it would mean that he does not believe in his analysis, resultant conclusions and is making absurd allegations. In which case, he should apologise to the nation,” it concluded.