In a sharp escalation of its attack on the integrity of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday presented what he called “concrete proof” of systematic electoral fraud in several key constituencies. At a press conference in New Delhi, Gandhi unveiled a detailed dossier titled “Vote Chori”, based on months-long investigation by the Congress party, alleging mass manipulation of voter rolls and procedural violations, particularly in Karnataka and Maharashtra. The congress research focussed on 2024 Lok Sabha results relying on data thats available on Election Commission of India (ECI) website. They narrowed down to one assembly segment of Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency - Mahadevapura, where BJP won by over 1,14,046 votes. The lead BJP got at Mahadevapura assembly segment helped BJP’s PC Mohan defeat Congress candidate Mansoor Ali Khan by 32,707 in the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat. According to Rahul Gandhi, when the party excluded votes from just this one assembly segment - Mahadevapura, he claimed, the Congress would have had a lead of nearly 82,000 votes.
The 80-page presentation, backed by booth-level data, screenshots from the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) website, and field verifications, outlines five key categories of electoral irregularities: duplicate voters, fake or unverifiable addresses, bulk voter registrations at single addresses, invalid or micro-sized voter photographs, and alleged misuse of Form 6, which is meant for first-time voters. The party’s internal audit of Mahadevapura allegedly uncovered over 1 lakh problematic entries in the voter rolls, broken down as follows:
* 11,965 duplicate voters, with identical names or voter IDs.
* 40,009 voters with fake or unverifiable addresses - some listed only as “0” or “-”.
* 10,452 voters registered under single addresses, some of which were one-room houses or even commercial establishments like a brewery in Bangalore.
* 4,132 entries with unreadable or distorted photographs.
* 33,692 voters allegedly registered multiple times through Form 6, with minor changes in photo or spelling.
“Anti incumbency hits every political party but BJP appears to be the only party that is not hit by anti-incumbency. This is because elections are choreographed in India. Exit polls indicated something in Madhya Pradesh and Haryana and then we see a complete different result with massive swings. There was time in India, the whole country would vote in one day. But now elections happen for months. That caught our suspicion. In Maharashtra, we won in Lok Sabha elections and in assembly election BJP wins with landslide. More voters were added in Maharashtra in 5 months than in entire 5 years - more voters than the population in Maharashtra. And there was huge voter turn out, mostly after 5 pm. There were no people but ECI showed voter turn out after 5 pm”, Rahul Gandhi began by saying.
The Congress has accused the Election Commission of destroying CCTV footage, denying access to digital voter rolls, and changing rules mid-way to block transparency. The party said it had written four letters to the EC demanding access to electoral data but received no satisfactory response.
Duplicate Voters
A major allegation was that of duplicate voters across multiple booths and even multiple states. According to the party’s findings, the same individuals appeared more than once in the electoral rolls, often with identical or slightly altered voter ID details. In one case, a voter named ‘Gurkirat Singh Dang’ was reportedly registered in Bangalore, Mumbai, Lucknow, and Varanasi, with active entries in each location. The investigation identified 11,965 such duplicate voters just in the Mahadevapura segment alone. Congress claims this was not an isolated oversight but part of an orchestrated effort to inflate turnout and facilitate multiple voting, especially in tightly contested constituencies.
Bulk Voter in Single Address
One of the most startling revelations from the Congress investigation is the presence of dozens of voters registered under a single, often implausible address. In Mahadevapura, the party found several instances where 80 to 100 voters were linked to one-room houses, raising serious doubts about the authenticity of these entries. For example, 80 voters were shown by ECI living in one room - room no. 35. Similarly in another address - house no. 791, as per ECI, 46 voters are registered. But perhaps the most bizarre case came from a commercial establishment - “153 Biere Club,” a well-known brewery in Bangalore - where 68 voters were shown as residents. “Can 68 people really live inside a brewery?” Rahul Gandhi asked. He showed thousands of documents what he claimed are the proof of bulk voters in a single address. There are total more than 10,000 suspicious bulk voters in that constituency, suggesting a blatant case of voter roll padding. Rahul Gandhi argued that such entries were not clerical errors but part of a systematic attempt to inflate the voter base in BJP-leaning segments.
First Time Voters
The Congress has also raised serious concerns over the widespread misuse of Form 6, which is legally meant for first-time voter registration. The party’s audit found thousands of suspicious entries where elderly individuals - some aged 70 and above - were newly enrolled as “first-time voters”. In many cases, the same person appeared multiple times in the rolls within a short span, with minor variations in their name or photograph. One such example cited is of Shakun Rani, who was registered twice in just two months and allegedly voted both times. Congress alleges that this loophole was deliberately weaponised to enable duplicate voting, undermining the legitimacy of the electoral process. Shakun Rani is one entry is shown as ‘Shakun’ as first name and ‘Rani’ as the last name and in another entry the same person with the same zoomed in photo shown as ‘Shakunrani’ as the first name without any middle or last name as a separate individual. She is 70 years old. “You have heard that the first time voters vote for the prime minister, this is how they have voted. This in assembly segment there are more than 33,000 voters who used form 6. Most of them are of the age of 70, 90, 96 years and more. They are first time voters. We are not sure if Shaun Rani has herself voted twice or someone has used her credentials and voted twice, we have two slips and they show she had voted twice. This is brazen loot of votes and Election Commission has allowed this”, Rahul Gandhi said. He also highlighted how their repeated request for electronic evidences have been denied. “This is why they don’t share the CCTV footage. ECI says they destroyed the CCTV footage after a point. Thus we don’t have the evidence if Shakun Rani has herself voted twice out someone else did using her name”, he added.
The implications of the alleged fraud extend beyond Karnataka, claimed Rahul Gandhi. According to the Congress, in Haryana, the party lost eight seats by a combined vote margin of just 22,779 votes. Nationwide, it claimed the BJP won 25 seats by margins of less than 33,000 votes, just enough to retain power.
“Let’s not forget that the Prime Minister is the prime minister by a slender majority- only 25 seats. What we are saying to the ECI- you are not in the business of destroying democracy. You should be protecting it. The ball is now in the ECI’s court. We want the electronic evidence. This is not about the ECI but it’s about the future of this country and the rights of the youth. I draw the attention of the young people to this serious issue. We want a fair match. But here unfortunately the umpire if on the side of the other team”, Rahul Gandhi concluded
