Massive Voter List Irregularities Alleged by Rahul Gandhi, Slams Election Commission
New Delhi, August 7, 2025: In a sensational press conference, Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, launched a scathing attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI), accusing it of colluding with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to manipulate voter lists and perpetrate large-scale electoral fraud in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Gandhi’s allegations have sparked intense debate, raising serious concerns about the integrity of India’s electoral process.
Allegations of Voter List Manipulation
Rahul Gandhi claimed that the voter rolls across multiple states, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Bihar, have been tampered with on an unprecedented scale. He alleged that crores of voters were either added or removed from electoral rolls, undermining the democratic process. Specifically, Gandhi pointed to the Mahadevapura Assembly segment in Karnataka’s Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency, where he claimed 1,00,250 votes were “stolen” through various fraudulent means. These include:
- Duplicate Voters: 11,965 voters allegedly registered multiple times.
- Fake and Invalid Addresses: 40,009 voters listed with non-existent or unverifiable addresses, including entries with “zero” as the house number or gibberish in fields like father’s name.
- Bulk Voters at Single Addresses: 10,452 voters registered at single addresses, such as 80 voters listed at a one-room house or 68 voters at a commercial brewery.
- Invalid Photos: 4,132 voters with unidentifiable or missing photographs.
- Misuse of Form 6: 33,692 instances of misuse of the voter registration form meant for first-time voters, including a case where a 70-year-old woman, Shakun Rani, was registered twice and voted in two different booths.
Gandhi further alleged that individuals like Aditya Srivastava were enrolled as voters in multiple states, including Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra, pointing to systemic flaws in voter verification. He claimed such irregularities were not isolated but part of a nationwide pattern, with similar issues observed in Maharashtra, where one crore new voters were allegedly added between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in 2024.
Election Commission’s Complicity Questioned
Gandhi accused the ECI of failing to provide transparent access to voter lists and CCTV footage from polling stations, which he claimed are critical evidence of electoral fraud. He criticized the ECI for supplying voter lists in non-machine-readable formats, such as scanned PDFs, which make it nearly impossible to analyze data efficiently. “It took us six months to uncover these irregularities in one constituency. If the ECI provided machine-readable data, we could verify this in 30 seconds,” Gandhi said during his press conference at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi.
He further alleged that the ECI’s refusal to share digital voter data for the past 10-15 years and its decision to change laws to restrict access to CCTV footage indicate a deliberate attempt to conceal evidence of “vote theft.” Gandhi went as far as to term the ECI’s actions as a “crime against the Indian Constitution” and a betrayal of democratic principles. “The Election Commission is not in the business of protecting democracy anymore; it’s helping dismantle it,” he asserted.
Maharashtra Polls Under Scrutiny
Gandhi highlighted discrepancies in the Maharashtra Assembly elections of November 2024, where the Congress-led INDIA bloc suffered a significant defeat despite a strong performance in the earlier Lok Sabha polls. He claimed that the addition of 39 lakh new voters in just five months between the general and Assembly elections was highly suspicious, especially when compared to the 32 lakh voters added over the previous five years. He questioned the ECI’s claim of “brisk voting” in Maharashtra, stating that booth agents reported no such surge, and raised concerns about the addition of one crore voters in a short span, which he argued exceeded the state’s population growth trends.
INDIA Bloc Backs Allegations
The INDIA bloc, comprising opposition parties including Congress, has rallied behind Gandhi’s allegations. During a meeting, Gandhi presented a detailed PowerPoint presentation showcasing evidence of voter list irregularities. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, along with leaders from the Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, DMK, and others, staged protests in Parliament against the ECI’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar, labeling it “Silent Invisible Rigging.” The opposition has demanded a rollback of the SIR and a parliamentary discussion on voter list discrepancies, accusing the ECI of disenfranchising voters ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections scheduled for later in 2025.
Election Commission’s Response
The ECI issued a sharp rebuttal, dismissing Gandhi’s allegations as “baseless,” “irresponsible,” and “deplorable.” The Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) wrote to Gandhi, asking him to submit evidence under oath as per Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, along with the names of electors allegedly included or excluded wrongfully. The ECI warned that providing false evidence is punishable under Section 227 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950. The commission also claimed that Gandhi had not responded to earlier communications sent in June 2025, urging him to stop misleading the public.
Interestingly, the ECI inadvertently acknowledged the validity of Gandhi’s concerns by noting that his allegations align with the need for its SIR exercise, which aims to address issues like duplicate voters and invalid addresses through door-to-door verification and Aadhaar-linked voter IDs. However, Gandhi rejected the ECI’s demand for a signed declaration, stating, “I’m a politician; what I say publicly is my oath. They haven’t denied the voter lists are wrong because they know the truth.”
BJP’s Counterattack
The BJP dismissed Gandhi’s claims as “frivolous” and accused him of tarnishing the ECI’s reputation out of frustration over electoral losses. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju called Gandhi’s behavior “dangerous” and part of a “malicious campaign” to weaken constitutional institutions. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis mocked Gandhi, saying, “Either his brain has been stolen, or the chip in his brain is missing.” BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad accused Gandhi of insulting the public’s mandate and warned that his repeated attacks on the ECI could lead to defamation cases.
Call to Action
Addressing the nation, Gandhi warned that these electoral irregularities threaten India’s democratic fabric and the future of its citizens. He called on the public to resist attempts to undermine democracy and urged the judiciary to intervene, stating, “The democracy we love so much does not exist if these allegations are true.” He also issued a stern warning to ECI officials involved in alleged fraud, saying, “When the opposition comes to power, there will be consequences for those attacking the foundations of our democracy.”
Conclusion
Rahul Gandhi’s allegations have intensified the political battle over India’s electoral integrity, with the opposition vowing to escalate protests and the ECI defending its impartiality. As the controversy unfolds, the nation awaits further evidence and action to ensure the sanctity of its democratic process. The Congress has announced a protest march in Karnataka, led by Gandhi, to press for transparency and accountability from the ECI.
