The Election Commission on Wednesday addressed allegations made by Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi regarding claimed vote manipulation in the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections. The Commission published a list of “important facts” on social media in response to Gandhi’s assertion that the upcoming elections were rigged in favor of the BJP.
Gandhi contended that 25 lakh votes had been illegitimately secured in Haryana through the inclusion of 5.21 lakh duplicate voters, 93,174 invalid voters, and 19.26 lakh bulk voters. In a statement that did not specifically mention Gandhi or his allegations, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Haryana released a compilation of facts related to the Assembly elections for 2024.
The fact list indicated that only 23 election petitions had been filed to contest the elections, while a total of 10,180 objections were raised by counting agents representing various candidates. Despite Gandhi’s claims of identifying 25,41,144 “fake” voters in the electoral list, the Haryana CEO noted that they had received just 4,16,408 objections during the Special Summary Revision (SSR) process.
An Election Commission source informed the press that Gandhi’s accusations of vote manipulation lack foundation, highlighting that no appeals had been lodged against the electoral rolls in Haryana. The source questioned why the Indian National Congress’s Booth Level Agents (BLAs) had not submitted claims or objections during the revision process to address multiple names on the voter list.
BLAs are appointed by political parties to monitor the voting process and report any irregularities. In a statement summarizing his position, Gandhi reiterated that he was challenging the Election Commission and the democratic process in India with what he described as “100 percent proof.”
Gandhi further alleged that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the other two election commissioners had colluded with the BJP to facilitate the party’s electoral victory in Haryana, asserting that they were in partnership with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He referred to this alleged manipulation as “Operation Sarkar Chori,” suggesting a scheme to convert a significant Congress victory into a defeat.
Additionally, Gandhi criticized CEC Kumar for what he termed misinformation regarding the allocation of house numbers, specifically questioning the practice of assigning house number zero to homeless individuals.
