In yet another attempt to undermine the credibility of Indiaโs democratic institutions, the Congress social media ecosystem has revived a debunked 2023 propaganda narrative targeting the Election Commission of India (ECI).
This time, pro-Congress influencers and trolls including self-proclaimed โjournalistโ Punya Prasun Bajpai, and known Congress amplifiers Arpit Sharma and Neha Singh Rathore have been circulating an old voter list from Varanasi Municipal Corporation elections with the claim that a man namedย Ramkamal Dasย has 40โ50 โsonsโ listed as voters at the same address.
The posts, riddled with sarcasm and insinuations, are aimed at lending credence to Rahul Gandhiโs unsubstantiated โvote choriโ allegations. The intention is clear: paint the ECI as complicit in facilitating fake voters, thereby discrediting the institution ahead of political battles.
The claim
The viral posts allege that a person namedย Ramkamal Dasย in Varanasi is the father of dozens of voters, all adult men, some with implausible age gaps implying large-scale voter list fraud. Bajpai mockingly wrote about a father with a 28-year-old youngest son and a 72-year-old eldest son. Sharma pushed the claim further, pairing it with unrelated Bihar voter age anomalies to hint at โcheating.โ Rathore joined in, claiming Ramkamal Das lives with โ43 sons.โ
The truth
The voter list in questionย is not from the ECIโs electoral roll for Lok Sabha or Assembly elections. It is from theย 2023 Varanasi Municipal Corporation electionsย โ Ward No. 51, Bhelupur. The list shows multiple voters withย Ramkamal Dasย recorded as their father.
Hereโs the factual background deliberately omitted by the propagandists:
Swami Ramkamal Das Vedanti is the Mahant (head priest) of Ram Janki Math in Khojwa, Varanasi. His ashram follows the GuruโShishya tradition, in which disciples regard their spiritual Guru as their โfatherโ and often officially record his name in place of their biological fatherโs. In 2023, a total of 48 disciples of Swami Ramkamal Das, all genuine individuals, were registered as voters at the Mathโs address. This practice is well-known in religious circles and is entirely legal.
Onย 12 March 2025, theย Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Uttar Pradeshย reiterated that the list belonged to anย urban local body election roll, not the ECIโs general electoral roll. The CEO clarified:
โIn the case of a religious Math/Ashram, the persons or sanyasis residing in it are identified by the name of their Guru instead of their father. Many sanyasis residing in an ashram may also be of the same age.โ
The 2023 Fact Check
When the same list went viral in May 2023, several media outlets fact-checked the claim. Reports quoted the Mathโs manager, Rambharat Shastri, explaining that disciples adopt new names upon initiation and record the Guruโs name as their father in official documents. Earlier, 150 disciples had done so; the number has since reduced to 48.
Jagranโs May 5, 2023 report confirmed the list was genuine and that all voters were real individuals residing at the Math. Even political rivals who initially raised objections dropped the matter once the facts emerged.
Media stunt designed to lend credence to Gandhiโs baseless voter fraud conspiracy
The revival of this debunked claim serves a calculated political purpose. It is designed to reinforce Rahul Gandhiโs baseless โvote choriโ narrative by manufacturing examples of alleged voter fraud, thereby lending false credibility to his accusations. At the same time, it aims to erode public trust in the Election Commission, which has repeatedly been targeted by Congress and its allies whenever electoral outcomes have not gone in their favour. By exploiting cultural traditions such as the GuruโShishya practice, which may be unfamiliar to urban online audiences, the campaign creates viral outrage, making perfectly legitimate voter entries appear suspicious and fuelling a perception of systemic malpractice.
Rahul Gandhiโs โvote choriโ propaganda busted again
The claim thatย Ramkamal Dasย has dozens of fake โsonsโ registered as voters isย misleading. The names belong to real disciples of Swami Ramkamal Das Vedanti, the Mahant of Ram Janki Math, recorded under the GuruโShishya tradition in the municipal electoral roll of 2023, not the ECIโs official rolls for general elections.
This recycled propaganda is a textbook example of how half-truths are weaponised by the Congress social media ecosystem to attack institutions and manufacture mistrust for political gain. The facts remain unchanged since 2023:ย there was no voter list fraud in this case only deliberate distortion for optics.
