A day before the Bihar elections, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday levelled serious allegations of voter list manipulation in Haryana, claiming the presence of over 25 lakh fake or invalid entries. Earlier in the morning, the Congress had released a teaser on social media referring to a “Hydrogen Bomb”, indicating a major expose.
Rahul Gandhi presented documents which, according to him, showed 5.21 lakh duplicate voters, 93,174 invalid entries, and 19.26 lakh ‘bulk voters’ in the Haryana electoral rolls. He also highlighted alleged instances of one individual being registered across multiple polling booths.
Citing examples, he claimed that a single woman’s photograph appeared against 100 voter entries in one assembly constituency and 223 entries across two other booths. He further alleged that 1.24 lakh voter records carried blurred or fake photographs. “Why is the Election Commission not removing duplicate names? In today’s AI era, this can be done easily. But they deliberately don’t want to do it because they are helping the BJP. There are thousands of voters who can vote in Uttar Pradesh and in Bihar as well,” questioned the senior Congress leader. He further alleged, “The Election Commission has directly lied to the nation.”
According to EC, “People who don’t even have a house have their names on the voter list. Their address is shown as the place where they sleep, like on lamp posts or on roads”, said the EC.
Speaking about faulty addresses, he said, “When there is a house number zero, how do you find the person? We have to identify them only through photographs in the villages.”
Gandhi added, “There are 19 lakh bulk voters. When I asked my team to physically verify them, I was told it is impossible.”
Sharing specific examples, he said, “A BJP leader named Umesh has 66 people registered at his address of House No. 150, which is false. At House No. 265 in Hordal, 501 people are shown living there, which is false. At House No. 1904, 108 people are registered in a small house. As per EC rules, if more than 10 people are registered at one house, a physical check must be done. But deliberately, no checks are happening.”
He alleged, “A massive 3.5 lakh voters were deleted before the Vidhan Sabha elections. They stole the Haryana election. I want to tell the people of Haryana that the present government is illegitimate. Congress won that election and BJP lost.”
Rahul Gandhi also said, “This wasn’t done without the help of the Election Commission. The EC commissioners and
the BJP have ended democracy. This is an attack on the Constitution written by Babasaheb Ambedkar.”
He added, “The same system used in Haryana and Maharashtra will now be used in the Bihar elections.”
Appealing to the youth, he said, “We always told the youth that India is the world’s largest democracy. But I want to tell Gen-Z that it is no longer true. India’s democracy is being destroyed.”
On last-minute voter list updates, he said, “If the voter list is corrupted and we receive it at the last minute, nothing can be done. Even if booth workers are trained, legally that person will be allowed to vote. No party can stop it. The Supreme Court is watching, the highest body in the country is watching and it must be questioned. This is not our data, it is the EC’s data.”
“Every opposition party understands this. The fundamental question of elections is the integrity of the voter list. If the Haryana voter list is flawed, then the election is flawed. The voter list is a lie and if the voter list is a lie, there is no democracy. There was no election in Haryana, it was a lie.” said the LOP
