| Part ofDemocratic backsliding in India | |
| Date | August 2025 – present |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Vote chori |
| Type | Politics of India |
| Cause | Alleged irregularities by theElection Commission of India |
| Motive | Alleged rigging of the2024 Indian general election and state assembly elections |
| Perpetrator |
|
On 1 August 2025,Rahul Gandhi, theleader of opposition in theLok Sabha, stated that his party, theIndian National Congress (INC), had found evidence ofelectoral fraud during the2024 Indian general election. On 7 August, he alleged that the electoral rolls prepared by theElection Commission of India (ECI) for theMahadevapura Assembly constituency inKarnataka consisted of various discrepancies, and accused the commission of "vote chori" (vote theft) and indulging in systematic fraud, in collusion with the rulingBharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The ECI dismissed the claims and urged him to submit them through a signed declaration. On 17 August,Gyanesh Kumar, thechief election commissioner, added that the allegations must be filed under oath within seven days, failing which they would be deemed “baseless and invalid," citing Rule 20(3)(B) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 and no such affidavit was ever filed by Rahul Gandhi orIndian National Congress.[1]
Since then, the opposition parties led by the INC have organised protests and social media campaigns over the ECI's revision ofBihar's electoral rolls. In reaction to the allegation, several members and affiliates of the BJP have defended the commission, while counter accusing the opposition parties of having indulged in electoral fraud themselves.
Election commissioners are members of the ECI, appointed by thepresident of India on the recommendation of a three-member panel, named theSelection Committee, through a majority vote. Prior to 2023, the committee consisted of theprime minister of India, thechief justice of India, and theleader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha. However, theChief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act of 2023 controversially replaced the chief justice with aunion minister, thereby giving the ruling government a dominant role in the appointment of election commissioners.[2]
Earlier, the oppositionIndian National Congress (INC; commonly known simply as "the Congress") had accused the ECI of collusion with the ruling BJP, and of rigging the assembly elections inMadhya Pradesh andMaharashtra.[3]
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On 1 August 2025,Rahul Gandhi, theleader of opposition inLok Sabha, alleged electoral fraud during the2024 Indian general election. He referred to the evidence as an "atom bomb" and stated that the ruling party will have "no place to hide."[4][5][6] On 6 August, the opposition demanded a discussion on the special exercise carried out by the ECI for the revision of electoral rolls inBihar.Arjun Ram Meghwal, thelaw minister, asked Rahul Gandhi to present the evidences regarding the fraud and stated that the functioning of the election commission cannot be debated in parliament, citing a previous precedence byLok Sabha speakerBalram Jakhar.[7]
On 7 August, Rahul Gandhi, in a meeting of thepress, alleged that the election commission added fraudulent voters to the electoral roll in theMahadevapura Assembly constituency inKarnataka, and accused the commission of rigging the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress lost the election to theBangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency, of which the assembly segment was part of, by 114,000 votes despite leading in the remaining six assembly segments of the constituency.[8] He further stated that the evidences were a result of a six month long research conducted by the party, and challenged the election commission to publish an electronic voter list andCCTV footage to debunk his claims.[9]
Rahul Gandhi accused the commission of systematic fraud, and claimed that the electoral rolls in Mahadevapura consisted of 11,956 duplicate voters, 40,009 with invalid addresses, 10,452 with bulk registrations (including an example case of 80 people with the same address), 4,132 with invalid photos, and 33,692 misusing Form 6 for registering as new voters.[10] As per Dipankar Sarkar, a resident of house no. 35, the alleged house which hosted 80 voters, the house was a small 10 ft (3.0 m) high building. As per theThe Print, officers from the district election office had queried about the 78 other voters in the residence, and had later had not confirmed their availability.[11] Rahul Gandhi also said that many voters had invalid father names, and house numbers. He cited an example of a 70-year old woman named Shakuni Devi, who was registered twice as a voter.[12]
On 5 November, 2025 Rahul Gandhi alleged vote fraud in the2024 Haryana Legislative Assembly election. He claimed theft of over 25 lakh votes in Haryana.[13] He presented evidence including repeated use of the same photographic images in voter rolls and cited the case of a Brazilian model's image, which appeared on multiple voter IDs across Haryana.[14]
Rahul Gandhi mentioned a specific example of a BJP sarpanch from Uttar Pradesh in his allegations regarding fake voters in Haryana during the 2024 Assembly elections. He claimed that thousands of voters were registered both in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, violating electoral laws. Among these, he cited a BJP sarpanch named Dalchand, whose name and his son's name appeared on the voter lists in both UP and Haryana. Rahul pointed out that most of these dual-registered voters were BJP supporters or local leaders.[15][16]
| State | Evidences and Allegations |
|---|---|
| Karnataka |
|
| Haryana |
|
The election commission dismissed the allegations as "baseless," and reverted that the Congress did not file any appeal or concern regarding the electoral rolls prior to the elections. It urged Rahul Gandhi to submit a written declaration with the allegations as per the rule 20(3)(B) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.[17] The commission also reverted to the allegation of a particular voter Shakuni Rani voting twice, and said that a preliminary enquiry conducted by the office confirmed that she only voted once.[18] It further stated that the request for a machine readable voter list was rejected by theSupreme Court in 2019, and that reviewing the CCTV footage for the 100,000 voting booths is "implausible," claiming that the footage is retained only if any losing candidate files an election petition to challenge the election in the concerned High Court within 45 days of the election.[17]
The chief electoral officers of Maharashtra andHaryana issued notices to Rahul Gandhi for submitting a formal declaration under 10 days for his alleged accusation of inclusion and exclusion of non-eligible and eligible voters by the election commission in the respective states.[19] On 17 August,chief election commissionerGyanesh Kumar responded to the claims of Rahul Gandhi stating that if the claims are not made under a declaration under oath within seven days, it would be considered as "baseless and invalid." He further stated that if Rahul Gandhi is not willing to submit a signed affidavit, he should then "apologise for his allegations."[20]
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On 11 August, about 200 lawmakers and their supporters held a protest against the special intensive revision exercise of the electoral rolls carried out in Bihar.[21] They marched to the office of the election commission office inNew Delhi, and claimed that it is a government conspiracy for "vote theft" which will lead to disenfranchisement.[22][23] TheDelhi Police detained multiple protesters including Rahul Gandhi.[24] Protests were also held by the opposition inWest Bengal.[25]Bharat Rashtra Samithi chairmanK. T. Rama Rao accused the Congress of vote theft in the2023 Telangana state elections.[26] Karnataka state ministerK. N. Rajanna of the Congress condemned Rahul Gandhi's remarks on the election commission. He was removed from the cabinet for his remarks against his party leader, which sparked protests by his followers inTumakuru district.[27][28]
On 12 August,members of parliament from the Congress and other opposition parties protested the alleged electoral fraud by wearing t-shirts which bore the face of Minta Devi, a 124-year-old woman from theDaraunda Assembly constituency.[29] In response, union ministerKiren Rijiju criticised the protesters for allegedly "mocking" Minta Devi and claiming her to be 124 years of age.[30] Minta Devi, who was reportedly 35 years old, condemned the use of her picture in the protest without her permission.[31] The district administration later stated that a clerical error was responsible for the incorrect age.[32]
Anurag Thakur of the BJP called the allegations as an excuse for the defeat of congress in the elections and as a political agenda on the backdrop of the upcoming elections in Bihar. On 13 August, the BJP counter accused the opposition parties of electoral irregularities in various parliamentary seats such asRae Bareli,Wayanad,Diamond Harbour, andKannauj and demanded resignation of the respective opposition members Rahul Gandhi,Priyanka Gandhi Vadra,Abhishek Banerjee, andAkhilesh Yadav representing those constituencies respectively. At a presentation held at the BJP headquarters in Delhi, the party alleged irregularities during the elections for theKolathur assembly seat in Tamil Nadu represented byTamil Nadu chief minister andDravida Munnetra Kazhagam chiefM. K. Stalin and in theMainpuri parliamentary seat in Uttar Pradesh represented bySamajwadi party leaderDimple Yadav. It further accused the opposition leaders for rigging elections, and blamed the opposition of protecting their "vote bank" of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.[33][34]
On 13 August, Rahul Gandhi reportedly met with seven voters of Bihar whose names were allegedly removed from the electoral rolls declaring them as dead.[35] On 14 August, he further declared that the opposition will set out a protest in all 30 districts of Bihar in three phases, beginning from 17 August, which was later postponed by a week.[36] On 15 August, Congress launched "Vote chori se azaadi" campaign on their social media handles, and requested people to change their display pictures to support their protest against the election commission.[37] On 18 August, it was reported in the media that theIndian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance was contemplating about moving an impeachment motion against the chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.[38]
The district administration claimed the discrepancy was a clerical error during the online application process...