New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of manipulating the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections, claiming that the polls were “stolen” through large-scale irregularities in the voter lists.
Addressing a press conference here, Gandhi alleged that more than 25 lakh fake voter entries were added to the Haryana rolls as part of what he described as a “centralised operation” involving electoral fraud. “This was not an election; it was a theft,” he said, alleging that the BJP, supported by the Election Commission, turned a likely Congress victory into defeat.
The Congress leader presented what he called “The H-Files” — a data-backed report that, according to him, showed evidence of duplicate voters, invalid addresses, and fake photographs in the electoral list. He claimed that one photograph, allegedly of a Brazilian model, was used multiple times across polling booths under different names.
“The Election Commission colluded with the BJP to carry out ‘Operation Sarkar Chori’ (Government Theft),” Gandhi said, adding that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and other officials “destroyed democratic foundations.” He claimed that about one in eight voter entries in Haryana were fake, with the Congress losing eight seats by narrow margins totaling just over 22,000 votes.
The Election Commission dismissed Gandhi’s allegations as baseless, saying that no official complaints or appeals were filed against the voter rolls in Haryana. BJP leaders also rejected the charge, calling it a “desperate attempt” to undermine democratic institutions. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju said Gandhi should have approached the EC or the courts if he had evidence, “but he never does.”
Gandhi also claimed that the alleged manipulation was not limited to Haryana, warning that a similar system was being replicated in Bihar ahead of its elections. “This is not just about one state — it’s an industrialised system of vote theft,” he said.
Calling on young voters to “peacefully resist” what he described as an attack on democracy, Gandhi said, “This is about restoring India’s democratic soul through truth and non-violence. The youth have the power to bring back real democracy.”
The Congress leader’s remarks come amid rising political tensions ahead of the Bihar elections, where opposition parties have vowed to raise concerns over electoral transparency.
