Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has once again attacked the integrity of the Election Commission of India. In his latest attack, Rahul Gandhi claimed that 1,00,250 “fake votes” in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment in the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka to ensure a win for the BJP. As an example of such ‘faker voters’, the Congress leader claimed that at House No. 35 in Muni Reddy Garden, around 80 voters fraudulently registered.
On 8th August, IndiaToday ‘journalist’ Rajdeep Sardesai amplified Gandhi’s claims. Taking to X, Sardesai said, “Fact check by @IndiaToday @sagayrajp reveals that yes, 80 voters are registered at one tiny Bengaluru home as claimed by @RahulGandhi. Will there be a free and fair investigation by @ECISVEEP?”
Fact check by @IndiaToday @sagayrajp reveals that yes, 80 voters are registered at one tiny Bengaluru home as claimed by @RahulGandhi . Will there be a free and fair investigation by @ECISVEEP ? https://t.co/FCNUPL6Z2X
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) August 8, 2025
In his desperation perhaps to prove loyalty to the Congress party, Rajdeep Sardesai did not read the very India Today report he quoted to question the ECI and amplify Rahul Gandhi’s claim of fraudulent registration of 80 voters. Notably, Sardesai is currently the consulting editor and anchor of India Today Television.
As per the India Today factcheck report, a large number of voters are indeed registered with the address in question— House No. 35 in Muni Reddy Garden. However, the report shows that there is no scam in it, because it is a rental house, and various tenants who lived there at various times used the address to register themselves to the voter list.
The house is at present occupied by a food delivery worker named Dipankar. The present occupant of the house is originally from West Bengal and moved here one month ago.
The house in question is owned by one Jayaram Reddy, who claims to be a BJP voter-supporter. As per IndiaToday report, “He (Reddy) admitted that several tenants had lived there over the years and enrolled themselves as voters, but most had since moved out. Despite this, he said some return during elections to cast their votes.”
Another lie busted. #VoteChori
Fact-check on 80 registered voters at a single address:
These are rented chawls where house helps and security guards come and go. Most of them made ID cards using the address as proof and later moved out.
They are not living together.
Any sane… pic.twitter.com/p9Ly6H77PR
— Lala (@FabulasGuy) August 8, 2025
“He confirmed that the voter list shows 80 people at the address, even though the house could not physically accommodate them. He claimed many had relocated to other states or districts, including Odisha, Bihar, and Mandya, but acknowledged that “a few of them” still return during polls to vote,” the report adds.
However, the claims of ‘fraudulent’ voter registration or “vote chori” as alleged by Rahul Gnadhi, seem unfounded since BLO Munirathna has clarified that several migrant workers living in small houses along the IT corridor use rental agreements to obtain voter IDs. “These occupants are typically job seekers working as security guards, housekeepers, or domestic helpers. After acquiring voter IDs, many vacate the premises, but their names remain on the electoral rolls,” the India Today reported.
Many these voters who have moved from here, refuse to have their names removed saying that they need the voter ID and return to cast votes during elections. Contrary to Rahul Gandhi’s insinuation that these 80 ‘fraudulent’ voters live together in 10 sq. ft. house, although these people have their voter IDs registered at the same address, these voters, mostly security guards, house helps etc, are not living together at the same time. They came, stayed for some time and moved to other places for some or the other reason.
This does not imply any ‘fraud’ and also does not prove that they may or may not be essentially voting for the BJP. Clearly, Rahul Gandhi and his media cheerleader Rajdeep Sardesai have labelled migrant voters as ‘fraudulent voters’. Moreover, the SIR exercise conducted by EIC in Bihar, is specifically aimed at addressing issue of migrant voters. But Rahul Gandhi and Congress party have been opposing the move.
As reported earlier, Rahul Gandhi while alleging ‘vote chori’ had zeroed in on Mahadevapura, one of eight Assembly segments under Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency, claiming that over 1 lakh votes out of 6.5 lakh were either duplicated or linked to fake addresses.
As an example, Rahul Gandhi cited the case of one Gurkirat Singh Dang, whose name allegedly appeared on voter rolls at four different booths. From this single instance, he extrapolated a sweeping claim of “thousands” of such cases, without presenting any independently verified evidence. What Gandhi fails to acknowledge, however, is the very real and common phenomenon of intra-city and inter-state migration, particularly in urban hubs like Bengaluru, where people frequently shift residences for work, education, or housing constraints.
In such cases, it’s not unusual for individuals to be enrolled at their new address without having formally applied for the removal of their names from earlier rolls. This administrative overlap can result in multiple entries, but it does not automatically mean that the person voted more than once, let alone that they were part of any coordinated fraud. To conflate registration anomalies with actual voting malpractice is not just misleading; it grossly misrepresents how electoral rolls evolve in dynamic urban settings.
Moreover, Gandhi also conveniently overlooked the fact that parties receive voter rolls well in advance and are free to raise objections during the verification phase. If such large-scale discrepancies truly existed, why weren’t they flagged before polling day? Clearly, Congress is manufacturing outrage by alleging ‘vote chori’, while the party’s media allies are amplifying its conspiracy theories.
