The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday strongly rejected Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s latest allegations of large-scale vote theft in Haryana, questioning whether he supported or opposed the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
According to ECI sources, the poll body queried Gandhi’s position on the SIR exercise, which aims to eliminate duplicate, dead and shifted voters while verifying citizenship across several states.
The clarification came after Gandhi alleged that a “planned operation” was carried out to convert Congress’s victory in the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections into a defeat.
Gandhi claimed that 25 lakh votes were “stolen” in the Haryana elections, including 5.21 lakh duplicate voters, 93,174 invalid voters and 19.26 lakh bulk voters. The Congress leader’s renewed attack on the poll body and the BJP came on the eve of the Bihar Assembly polls, intensifying political tensions between the opposition and the ruling party.
Sources in the ECI, however, dismissed the allegations, saying no appeals had been filed against the electoral rolls in Haryana. They noted that only 22 election petitions are currently pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court out of 90 Assembly constituencies, suggesting no widespread legal dispute over the results.
The Commission also questioned the role of Congress polling agents, pointing out that Booth Level Agents (BLAs) are authorised to object if a voter’s identity appears doubtful or if a vote has already been cast.
It said that Congress BLAs raised no such objections or appeals during the electoral roll revision process, which could have addressed any duplicate entries.
Also Read : Rahul Gandhi alleges massive voter fraud in Haryana
Officials further argued that if duplicate entries did exist, it remained unclear how Gandhi could claim those voters had supported the BJP, suggesting instead that such votes could just as easily have gone to the Congress.
Gandhi’s claims come a day after the ECI launched the SIR exercise in nine states and three Union territories to update voter lists and verify the eligibility of around 51 crore electors.
The drive is part of a routine effort to improve electoral accuracy, but several opposition parties have accused the poll body of using it for political purposes.
Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK has challenged the SIR in the Supreme Court, with Chief Minister MK Stalin alleging that the process aims to remove “true voters” ahead of the state’s upcoming Assembly elections. Similarly, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee led an anti-SIR rally in Kolkata, calling the exercise “hurried and politically motivated.”
Banerjee described SIR as standing for “silent, invisible rigging,” accusing the BJP of using the process to intimidate voters and manipulate the electoral rolls in its favour.
Meanwhile, the ECI maintained that the SIR was a transparent administrative exercise aimed solely at improving the credibility and accuracy of India’s voter database, reaffirming its commitment to conducting free and fair elections across the country.
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