Rahul Gandhi’s Congress and its I.N.D.I. Alliance have recently introduced a new tool from their arsenal of falsehoods and unfounded accusations. Slogans such as “vote chori”, “disenfranchisement”, and “the Election Commission of India is colluding with the Bharatiya Janata Party,” along with the most recent “children are joining me and saying vote chor gaddi chhor”, have been repeatedly voiced by Rahul Gandhi. These have been attempts by the Indian opposition to undermine the credibility of the institutional body.
Nevertheless, in response to the serious allegations and to promote transparency, the Election Commission, on 17th August, requested the Congress scion to present his claims in a sworn affidavit within a week or issue an apology to the nation for his misleading remarks. The deadline ended on 25th August and predictably, Rahul Gandhi did not offer any proof or submitted an apology.
“Rahul’s vote theft claims stand invalidated not meriting any further proceedings by the chief electoral officers (CEOs) concerned,” an official outlined, reported The Times of India. Meanwhile, Gandhi intensified his accusations to support his petty objectives in a prime example of political hit and run.
Election Commission challenges Rahul Gandhi
“Halafnama dena hoga ya desh se maafi maangni hogi, koi teesra vikalp nahi hai. Agar saat din mein halafnama nahi mila to iska arth ki yeh saare aarop niradhar hai. (Either submit an affidavit or apologise to the nation, there is no third option. If an affidavit is not received within seven days, it would mean that these allegations are baseless),” Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar had told Rahul Gandhi in a strong statement.
The reaction coincided with the Mahagathbandhan’s “Voter Adhikar Yatra” in Bihar to accuse the Election commission of stealing votes.
CEC Gyanesh Kumar also emphasized that a person can submit an “election petition” against the poll verdict in the concerned high court within 45 days, however, no opposition leader or candidate raised any issues at the time. He referred to the Congress leader’s charges as an “unsuccessful attempt to mislead the public by using wrong words like vote theft” and asked, “What else is this if not an insult to the Constitution of India?”
The official added that certain parties were using the commission’s shoulders to fire and play their own politics. CEC Kumar also questioned that why complaints were not lodged at the time, citing the claims of inconsistencies in the electoral roll for the Maharashtra Assembly elections. “This was remembered after the results were announced. Until now, the CEO (Chief Electoral Officer) of the state has not got even one such (fake) elector’s name with proof,” he said.
According to Kumar, the Supreme Court determined in 2019 that providing machine-readable electoral rolls, as demanded by the Congress, could infringe upon right to privacy of people. He conveyed that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral records would address the concerns brought up over the years.
The CEC asserted that voters, political parties, and Election Commission Booth Level Officers were collaborating during the exercise in Bihar. However, he mentioned that it was a “matter of grave concern” that the national and state leadership was not hearing from district presidents and party booth level agents who have reaffirmed their trust in the transparency of the significant initiative.
According to the the Election Commission, of the 7.24 crore electors in Bihar on the draft roll released on 1st August, 65 lakh were either deceased, relocated, untraceable or enrolled in more than one place. The people have until 1st September to turn in their paperwork to be included in the final roll, which will be released on 30th September.
The Mahagathbandhan alliance of Congress and RJD in Bihar is resolutely opposing the effort that, in truth, corrects the voter list by eliminating fake voters and defending the democratic rights of legitimate electorates. It also uncovered foreign nationals, including those from Bangladesh, who had been staying in the state with Aadhar cards and various Indian documents.
Nevertheless, the program which focuses on real voters, eliminates fraud and cleanses the democratic exercise is facing protests solely because a majority of the fraudulent voters are aligned with the opposition coalition.
Furthermore, the electoral body earlier made a similar announcement following Rahul Gandhi’s news conference on 7th August in which he alleged that the commission had “choreographed” the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to favour the BJP. Hilariously, Rahul Gandhi quoted “internal analysis” to stress that his party only won 9 seats in Karnataka compared to their anticipated 16 seats. According to him, the Congress looked into seven surprising defeats and concluded that 100,250 votes had been stolen in Mahadevapura.
Rahul Gandhi’s response to the Election Commission
The leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha argued that the research his party had conducted concluded there was “criminal evidence” and the Election Commission was actively damaging the democratic process throughout the nation.
The Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of at least three states, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Haryana, asked him to provide a signed declaration, oath or affidavit containing the names of eligible voters who were disqualified and “ineligible” individuals listed on voter lists to take the appropriate action in response to the accusations.
The CEO wrote a letter to Gandhi and conveyed that he must verify that the statement he has made is correct to the best of his knowledge, in line with rule 20 of the Registration of Electors Rules 1960, and he understands that section 31 of the Representation of the People Act 1950, penalizes the act of making a false declaration in relation to electoral rolls.
The Raebareli MP, who has been consistently repeating the allegations, as anticipated, instead of providing evidence to support his claims, started attacking the commission. Rahul Gandhi opted to engage in further rhetoric which revealed the real intention and truth behind his outrageous statements against Election Commission.
“The Election Commission asked me to submit affidavit after my presser on ‘vote chori’ but did not ask BJP leaders to do so when they made claims,” he stated before the start of his “Voter Adhikar Yatra” in poll-bound Bihar.
“If Rahul Gandhi believes in his analysis and feels that his allegations against ECI are true, he should have no problem in signing the declaration,” the commission’s sources earlier noted. However, he, likewise, justified his failure to substantiate his charges and declared, “The ECI asks me to file an affidavit and give information under oath. I have taken oath inside the Parliament holding the Constitution.”
“I am a politician, what I say to the people is my word. I am saying it to the people publicly, take it as an oath. Interestingly, they haven’t denied the information,” the senior Congress leader defended himself after Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) called him to testify under oath.
Rahul Gandhi further alleged, “In the (2024) Lok Sabha election, our alliance wins in Maharashtra. But after 4 months, the BJP wins the Maharashtra Assembly election. It was a surprising election result. When we tried to find out, we learnt that 1 crore new voters cast their votes, 1 crore new voters who had never voted in the Lok Sabha polls voted in the assembly election in Maharashtra.”
According to Gandhi, the BJP received these additional votes, indicating “wrongdoings” and insisted, “The votes of our alliance did not reduce and we got exactly the same number of votes we had in the Lok Sabha election. The new voters went to the BJP in the Assembly election.”
Notably, Sanjay Kumar, the co-director of Lokniti, a research initiative at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies already acknowledged that the figures from his survey which were used by the Congress to attack the BJP and the Election Commission are in fact flawed.
Furthermore, the Lok Sabha member contended that Congress assessments in Karnataka indicated they will win 15-16 seats in the general election. “Our polling showed that we were ahead in 16 seats but we won nine seats. Then we started questioning. Did we really lose elections,” he asked.
The Congress scion added, “We were demanding the EC a soft copy voter list but they were rejecting it. When we demanded video, they rejected it and changed the law and said that they should destroy the video after 45 days.” As mentioned earier, the apex court has already pronounced that making machine-readable election rolls available could violate people’s right to privacy.
The Congress veteran claimed that there were 11,965 duplicate voters in the segment, 40,009 voters with fictitious and invalid addresses, 10,452 bulk or single-address voters, 4,132 voters with invalid photos and 33,692 voters who had misused Form 6 of new voters. “In the last election, Modi and his leaders made an assault on the Constitution. Indian institutions were destroyed,” Rahul Gandhi voiced.
The grand old party seems to consider internal surveys as immutable facts and hence has resorted to peddling conspiracy theories as well as insulting democratic mandate to support their claims. Additionally, Booth Level Officer (BLO) Munirathna outlined that a number of migrant workers who stay in small properties in Mahadevapura use rental agreements to obtain voter IDs and stressed that there was no duplication in relation to a house there.
Vote Chori: A conspiracy theory to attack BJP and EC
Rahul Gandhi’s relentless efforts to tarnish the reputation of the ruling party and the Election Commission have been regularly debunked. They just appear to be a calculated strategy to incite the populace by eroding their confidence in the country’s institutions, in hopes of gaining some votes.
From the confidence expressed in the SIR drive by the BLAs of opposition parties to Gandhi’s unwillingness to substantiate his claims with proof indicates that they are cognizant of the truth regarding their allegations. Yet Congress seeks to perpetuate the theory to deceive the public. Moreover, the Election Commission has not received any complaints from Congress or its bloc concerning the SIR campaign.
It is evident that the reality on the ground is vastly different but the Congress leader aims to advocate for an entirely contrary agenda to the public.
During his yatra in Bihar, Gandhi introduced Subodh Kumar and Ranju Devi as two individuals affected by the “voter fraud” in India. He asserted that Subodh had been excluded from the draft electoral roll and termed it as “attack on Mother India,” in Nawada. The lies were soon unravelled when the Election Commission informed that the man was a booth level agent (BLA) of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and his name had never been on the voter list prior to the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral roll.
“It is clear that the allegation made by Subodh Kumar regarding deletion of his name in the SIR 2025 is baseless and untrue. If he submits Form-6 and the required declaration in future, his name will be included in accordance with law,” mentioned District Election Officer of Nawada.
Rahul Gandhi had previously raised the matter of Ranju Devi in Aurangabad, alleging that her name had also been removed from the voter list. However, she later stated in a video that she was tricked and her name was on the voter list.
Moreover, Gandhi held a press conference to assert that an individual named Aditya Srivastava was casting votes in three states at the same time. However, the latter immediately refuted the false claims, stating that he is from Lucknow and his first voter ID was issued there.
Aditya moved to Mumbai in 2016 and updated his voter ID to reflect his new Maharashtra address. He had voted in the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Mumbai. He then subsequently moved to Bengaluru in 2021 for employment and again transferred his voter ID to a new Karnataka address.
Aditya voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Bengaluru and had updated all of the information on the Election Commission’s website.
The disinformation propagated by Gandhi was further revealed by the Election Commission which stated that no appeals were submitted by the Congress party in 36 States and Union Territories after the 2024 Lok Sabha election, despite having the legal authority to contest the decisions of the central body.
The Election Commission countered, “Many such allegations are being made by Rahul Gandhi and are reported by the media, however, no written complaint was ever 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 (All India Congress Committee) wrote to ECI. Our reply, dated 24th December 2024, is publicly available on ECI website. Yet, Rahul Gandhi claims that ECI never responded.”
The commission also explained why CCTV footage is deleted after 45 days and the need for its preservation in particular instance. It highlighted, “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.”
The Congress stalwart even charged that thousands of phoney voters had been added to electoral lists throughout the states by the BJP and ECI. He asserted that many of these voters were illegitimate since their voter IDs listed a “0” in lieu of their home addresses rather than specific addresses.
Notably, voters without permanent or clearly defined residential addresses such as those who are homeless, whose homes lack official numbering or who didn’t provide their complete addresses on election forms are frequently assigned “House Number 0” or “notional addresses” by the Election Commission. Similarly, joint families, shared homes or rented accommodations especially in rural and semi-urban areas can have several voters with the same house address.
More importantly, even leaders within Congress are not endorsing Gandhi’s claims, as Karnataka Cooperation Minister KN Rajanna questioned the party’s silence on the alleged manipulation of the voter list while it was in power.
“If there were irregularities, why didn’t anyone speak up then? Why were we silent? When the draft list was being prepared, wasn’t it our responsibility to check it? These irregularities happened right in front of us. Staying silent back then is shameful for all of us. We should admit this and make sure we are more alert in the future under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership,” he expressed. Unsurprisingly, he had to resign afterwards.
Conclusion
The “vote chori” is yet another sinister scheme of the Congress and its ecosystem which has been out of power for over a decade. This is the reason behind their vitriol aimed at the nation and its institutional bodies. The Congress seeks to oust Prime Minister Narendra Modi by any means and is not reluctant to stoop to any level for its objectives.
The relentless attacks on his government, despite the lack of evidence and their subsequent apology in the Supreme Court for lying in its name, reflect the same ambition. Congress is attacking India’s institutions, whether judicial or EC, as a way to deal with their frustration after multiple electoral defeats.
The party which previously dominated the country’s institutions with an iron grip has now turned to accuse BJP of similar tactics as the voters have relegated it to the opposition benches. The Congress and its allies intend to stir public sentiment against PM Modi and other Constitutional bodies, convinced that these actions will serve their political aspirations and goals.
