Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is also the leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, on Wednesday launched a blistering attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government, alleging ‘large-scale electoral fraud’ in the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections. At a press conference in New Delhi, Mr Gandhi claimed that as many as 2.5mn (million) votes in the state were ‘fake’, alleging a coordinated effort to alter the results and deny the Congress party a legitimate victory.
Displaying a photograph of a woman he claimed was a Brazilian model, Mr Gandhi alleged that her image had been used in the Haryana voter list across multiple booths. “She voted 22 times in Haryana from 10 different booths under various names — Seema, Sweety, Rashmi, Saraswati. She is not a resident of Haryana. She is a model from Brazil. And she is not alone in this. This shows a centralised operation from the top to rig the election,” he says.
Addressing the media at the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters, Mr Gandhi presented what he termed the ‘H Files’, his long-promised exposé, and alleged that the entire electoral machinery had been compromised. “Out of 2 crore official voters in Haryana, 25 lakh were fake,” he says, adding that ‘vote chori’ (vote theft) had taken place through categories like duplicate entries, invalid addresses, bulk voters and other manipulated segments. “This is not limited to one or two constituencies. It is a centralised operation from the top. The whole state was stolen,” Mr Gandhi declared.
The Congress leader claimed that the manipulation went beyond local irregularities in constituencies like Aland and Mahadevpura, which he had previously flagged, and amounted to a state-wide subversion of democracy. “The entire electoral process was controlled from above, and the Election Commission became a participant rather than a regulator,” Mr Gandhi alleged. He says the so-called ‘Haryana pattern’ of electoral manipulation could soon be replicated in other states. “Bihar could be next,” he warned.
In an emotional appeal to young voters, the LoP urged India’s youth to pay attention to what he described as a direct assault on their democratic rights. “Gen Z must listen and understand this conspiracy because it pertains to your future. It is your future which is being taken away and your dreams being stolen and all of this is happening in front of you,” he says.
The Congress presentation included electoral roll data and comparative tables purportedly showing inflated and duplicated entries across multiple constituencies. Mr Gandhi claimed the pattern of fake registrations was designed to swing close contests, particularly in urban and semi-urban segments where the Congress was projected to perform well. “This is the largest data manipulation operation ever in an Indian state election,” he asserted.
While the Congress leader has been asking questions to the ECI, once again, the BJP came forward and dismissed the allegations as ‘false and baseless’. BJP accused the Congress leader of attacking independent institutions to cover up his party’s electoral failures. “Rahul Gandhi is defaming India’s democracy and its constitutional bodies. He should stop spreading lies,” a BJP spokesperson says, arguing that the Election Commission had conducted the Haryana polls in a transparent and verifiable manner. The ruling party claimed that Gandhi’s claims were politically motivated and unsupported by evidence.
Meanwhile, the controversy drew reactions beyond Haryana. Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Harshavardhan Sapkal linked Mr Gandhi’s ‘H Files’ revelations to alleged irregularities in Maharashtra’s own electoral rolls. “In Haryana, a scam involving 25 lakh fake votes has been exposed — one person’s name appearing 22 times under different identities, even the name of a Brazilian model appearing 22 times. Using this same ‘Haryana pattern,’ the BJP formed a stolen government in Maharashtra,” Mr Sapkal says.
He claimed that within six months, Maharashtra’s voter count rose by 4.7mn , and the voting percentage ‘mysteriously’ jumped by 8% overnight. “The same flawed voter lists are now being used for local body elections. When opposition parties demanded corrections, the Election Commission ignored them and went ahead with polls — all to benefit the BJP,” he alleged.
Mr Gandhi’s ‘H Files’ presentation marks the latest chapter in the Congress party’s sustained campaign against what it terms the ‘capture of institutions’ under the BJP government. Over the past year, the opposition has repeatedly accused the ECI of acting with bias, from selective use of voter roll revisions to alleged inaction on complaints of irregularities.
For now, Mr Gandhi’s press conference has injected fresh turbulence into the political discourse, combining elements of satire, data presentation and populist rhetoric to claim that India’s democratic process itself is under attack. Whether the allegations stand legal scrutiny or not, they have reignited an old debate: Who guards the guardians of democracy?
It is hoped that the intelligent youth, the future of India, will rise to the occasion.
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