By Dr. Gyan Pathak
The Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi has now alleged ‘vote theft’ in Haryana Legislative Election 2024 and accused the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Union Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah that they have been hand in glove in carrying out deletion of voters from and addition of voters in the electoral rolls to facilitate vote theft.
Denying the allegation is normally the first thing that any accused person resort to. They generally say that allegations are wrong. Nevertheless, FIRs are registered and the cases are investigated as per the law. However, in the present case, all the accused are legally privileged persons. It prevents any FIR and investigation of the allegation.
Moreover, as the alleged offence was carried out spanning years and involving many other officials of the Election Commission and leaders of the ruling BJP, the investigation the ‘vote theft’ is a complex matter, and will take much time and effort. In legal jurisprudence, an accused can’t and must not investigate the case against oneself, the question is who will investigate the offence of ‘vote theft’?
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had earlier exposed the “vote theft’ in Mahadevpura constituency of Karnataka on August 7, 2025 as an example to show how it is systematically carried out. Later, on September 1, he called that expose an “atom bomb” and said that he would soon unleash a “hydrogen bomb”. He had just dropped the “hydrogen bomb” on November 5, which is related to Haryana Vidhan Sabha Election 2025.
When the “vote theft” was allegedly carried out, the current Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, was not on the post. Nevertheless, he has been defending all the officers and the political persons allegedly involved in the “vote theft”. ECI served notices to Rahul Gandhi asking him to substantiate his expose and certify the materials on oath. It was not less than a threat to the victim of “vote theft” who have meticulously collected some of the evidences of the crime. ECI is yet to initiate investigation on the alleged “vote theft”.
There have been numerous protests against the ECI for conniving with PM Narendra Modi to manipulate electoral results in favour of the BJP. The “vote theft” is chiefly carried out through deletion of genuine voters and addition of outside voters. The electoral roll manipulation has been exposed by Rahul Gandhi.
Nevertheless, the ECI came out with Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Roll in Bihar, which was protested by the opposition INDIA bloc alleging that it was an attempt to manipulate the voter list only for the purpose of “vote theft” in favour of the BJP. People of the country has seen how millions of voters have been added from outside, while millions of genuine votes have been deleted. ECI’s defense is that there was not appeal from voters against deletion or addition in the prescribed forms and manner. It is a weak defense, since we Indian know that many people do not prefer to come out to report crime since the police and administration humiliate the victims. Political parties have raised objection on deletions and additions, but ECI says that they are not filed in proper forms. It is just humiliation to the persons reporting the offence. Even the Leader of Opposition is not spared, by PM, ECI, and Home Minister. He is being repeatedly humiliated for raising the “vote theft” and the conspiracy behind it. Now, SIR is being carried out in 12 states and UTs of the country in the second phase, and in the third phase the entire country will be covered.
It is in this back drop, Rahul Gandhi’s fresh allegation of “vote theft” in Haryana has special significance. He has asserted that “vote theft” took place in Haryana Vidhan Sabha Election and accused the Election Commission of India of being in partnership with the Prime Minister and the Union Minister of Home to destroy Indian democracy.
Rahul alleged that CEC Gyanesh Kumar is protecting those who are “destroying” Indian democracy by refusing to share technical details of persons behind an attempt to delete names of voters from the electoral rolls of the Mahadevpur Assembly seat in Karnataka.
In Haryana, he alleged that over 5,21,619 duplicate voters were in Haryana electoral roll. This system of vote theft has been industrialized, and we are pretty sure that they will do it in Bihar.
In one of the specific allegations, Rahul Gandhi said that a voter’s photograph appears 223 times in two booths under different names. He says, “There are thousands and thousands of examples in Haryana.” He said that there were 1,24,177 voters with the same photos in Haryana. He alleged, “ECI want to create space. They are destroying CCTV footage.”
The Leader of Opposition alleged that roughly 25 lakh voters in Haryana were fake voters. He has even shown an Elector Photo Identity Card (EPIC) which used a Brazilian model who is supposed to have voted 22 times across 10 booths.
Rahul Gandhi labeled the entire operation as “Operation Sarkar Chori” (Operation Stealing and Government). He alleged that “vote theft” is happening not only just at constituency level but also at state and national levels.
Allegations of the Leader of Opposition is serious and needs thorough investigation. However, the million-dollar question is who will do it? The ruling government and ECI are accused, and the Supreme Court of India has recently asked a petitioner to go to ECI for action in the Rahul Gandhi’s expose of “vote theft” in Mahadevpura. What a citizen can do? (IPA Service)
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