Following Rahul Gandhi’s press conference alleging ‘vote theft’ in Haryana, the Election Commission (EC) has officially responded, advising him to submit all evidence to the High Court. Gandhi presented a substantial collection of documents, asserting widespread irregularities in the Haryana assembly elections. His claims included the existence of 25 lakh fake voters, the deletion of 3.5 lakh voter names (allegedly Congress supporters), and issues with bulk, duplicate, and invalidly addressed voters. A headline accusation involved a foreign model’s picture being used on multiple voter ID cards. However, an independent media investigation has raised questions about the veracity of these claims. Ground reports from locations highlighted by Gandhi indicated that large families resided at single addresses, with all eligible members voting without issue. In one case, an address with a claimed 501 voters was identified as a large property housing multiple generations and various institutions. The women voters implicated in the ‘Brazilian model’ photo incident confirmed they voted using valid IDs. The Election Commission pointed out that the Congress party has not filed any appeals regarding the finalized 2024 electoral rolls. The EC also addressed the issue of ‘zero’ addresses, explaining it’s a common notation where official house numbering is absent. Observers believe Gandhi’s campaign against the electoral process is a political tactic to mitigate the impact of repeated election defeats on his leadership. With state elections failing to yield expected results for the Congress, these accusations are seen as an effort to preserve his authority within the party by attributing losses to external manipulation rather than internal shortcomings.
