Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday intensified his ‘vote chori’ (vote theft) allegations against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Election Commission of India, accusing them of large-scale voter fraud in the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections.
Speaking at a press conference in New Delhi, Gandhi claimed that nearly 25 lakh fake votes amounting to about 12 per cent of Haryana’s electorate were cast during the polls. He described the alleged irregularities as “systemic manipulation” designed to turn a Congress victory into a BJP win.
“Haryana has two crore voters, and 25 lakh of them are fake,” Gandhi said, presenting what he described as “100 per cent proof” of the fraud. He further alleged that his team had uncovered 5.21 lakh duplicate voter entries. “One in every eight voters in Haryana is fake,” he added.
The Congress leader also presented slides during the press conference, highlighting discrepancies in the electoral rolls. One example that drew particular attention involved a Brazilian model’s photograph allegedly appearing 22 times under different names, including Seema, Sweety and Saraswati. Gandhi said the image was used repeatedly to create fake voter entries.
“This is not an accident. It’s a planned operation by the BJP to subvert democracy,” Gandhi asserted. He claimed that all exit polls had pointed to a Congress victory in Haryana, but “a plan was put in motion to convert Congress’ landslide victory into a loss.”
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“For the first time in Haryana’s history, postal ballots didn’t match the actual votes,” he said. “This had never happened before.”
Meanwhile, sources in the Election Commission rejected Gandhi’s allegations, calling them “baseless.” They said there had been “zero appeals” filed against the state’s electoral rolls and clarified that only 22 election petitions were pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court out of 90 Assembly constituencies.
The Commission maintained that the limited number of legal challenges reflected the overall integrity of the electoral process.
The BJP has not yet issued an official response to Gandhi’s claims, but party insiders described the allegations as a “political gimmick” aimed at deflecting attention from the Congress’s electoral defeat.
The controversy has reignited debate over the accuracy of India’s voter rolls and the role of technology in ensuring transparent elections, with opposition parties demanding a comprehensive review of the Haryana polls.
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