Stepping up his attack on the Election Commission (EC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday released a new video on social media platform X, renewing his allegations of electoral malpractice. He accused the BJP and the EC of colluding in what he termed as a “vote chori” (vote theft) conspiracy during several state elections in the past two years.
“Vote theft is not merely an election scam. It is a deep betrayal of the Constitution and democracy itself,” Gandhi said in Hindi in the video. “Let those guilty in this national crime listen carefully: times will change, and they will face punishment.”
Gandhi, who serves as the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, specifically cited the 2022 Uttarakhand Assembly elections and the 2023 polls in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, in addition to Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Haryana. He claimed that suspicious voting patterns and voter roll discrepancies were indicative of systematic rigging.
In response to a notice from the Election Commission asking him to submit evidence under oath, Gandhi retorted, “My word is an oath.” He urged the EC to verify the data already in its possession, claiming that his statements are based on the Commission’s own figures.
In the video, Gandhi also alleged large-scale irregularities, including multiple entries for single voters and thousands of entries without valid addresses—particularly in constituencies like Bangalore Central.
He reiterated concerns that had been raised in his earlier live presentation, where he showcased what he called data-backed proof of mass manipulation in voter rolls.
“I come from a political family. In the 1980s, my sister Priyanka and I used to help prepare posters at home,” Gandhi said in a nostalgic moment. “I understand how elections work—right down to polling booths and voter lists. And the results increasingly did not match the people’s mood.”
The Congress party has demanded an independent probe into the allegations, while the BJP and EC have both dismissed his claims as politically motivated.
