The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday strongly refuted Rahul Gandhi’s claims that the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections were rigged in favour of the BJP. The poll body also questioned the Congress’s role during the electoral roll revision, asking why its representatives did not flag duplicate or invalid voters at the time.
Sources said the ECI queried whether the Congress leader supported the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls — a process designed to remove duplicate, dead, and migrated voters — or if he opposed it.
On the eve of the Bihar Assembly elections, Rahul Gandhi reignited his attack on the BJP and the Election Commission, claiming that the 2024 Haryana polls were manipulated.
The Congress leader alleged that 25 lakh votes were “stolen” in Haryana through 5.21 lakh duplicate entries, 93,174 invalid voters, and 19.26 lakh bulk voters.
“This means one in eight voters in Haryana is fake — 12.5 per cent of the electorate,” Gandhi had said earlier, calling the process a “silent rigging.”
ECI Counters With Detailed Clarifications
Responding to the allegations, the Election Commission said that no formal appeals were filed against the electoral rolls in Haryana and that only 22 election petitions are pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court concerning 90 Assembly constituencies.
The poll body emphasized that Congress Booth Level Agents (BLAs) — responsible for identifying voter irregularities — had raised no objections during the roll verification or the voting process.
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“If duplicate entries existed, it’s unclear how Mr. Gandhi determined that those voters supported the BJP. They could just as well have voted for Congress,” an ECI source said.
The ECI reminded that polling agents from each party are expected to flag any instance of impersonation, repeat voting, or suspicious entries. Yet, no such objections or appeals were filed by Congress during the electoral roll updates.
Additionally, the Commission clarified that voters listed under house number “zero” belong to localities where municipal bodies have not yet allotted official house numbers — not fraudulent entries, as alleged.
SIR Exercise Faces Political Pushback Nationwide
The controversy comes as the ECI conducts the SIR (Special Intensive Revision) across nine states and three Union Territories, aiming to verify 51 crore voter records.
While the Commission maintains that the exercise ensures clean voter lists, several opposition parties have alleged political bias.
In Tamil Nadu, the ruling DMK has challenged the SIR in the Supreme Court, with Chief Minister MK Stalin claiming it aims to “remove true voters.”
Meanwhile, in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee led a massive rally in Kolkata against the SIR, calling it “hurried and politically motivated.”
“SIR stands for silent, invisible rigging — the BJP’s tool to instil fear among voters,” Banerjee said during the march.
