‘This Is Not an Election, It’s Theft’: Rahul Gandhi Drops Vote Fraud Bombshell

In a sharply worded press conference on Thursday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi levelled serious charges against the Election Commission of India (ECI), alleging it actively facilitated electoral fraud in the 2024 general elections. The allegations, which centred on bogus voter entries, duplicate names, and a deliberate refusal to allow scrutiny of the voter list, have stirred political waters ahead of a major protest in Bangalore on Friday.

“These elections were not just influenced — they were stolen,” Gandhi said, accusing the EC of “acting like an accomplice” to the ruling BJP. He declared that the very idea of ‘one person, one vote’ is being dismantled, not just in spirit, but in cold, calculated numbers.

Maharashtra: A Voter Surge That Defies Logic

Citing the example of Maharashtra, Rahul Gandhi questioned how one crore new voters could be added in just five months between the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections — an increase that, by all estimates, should have taken years.

“Between May and October, the rolls ballooned. Our alliance had just won the Lok Sabha seats, yet we were suddenly swept away in the Assembly polls. Why? Where did these voters come from?” he asked.

Adding to the mystery was a suspicious spike in voter turnout after 5:30 pm, which, according to party workers and polling agents, was not witnessed on the ground.

“This wasn’t democracy. This was digital forgery,” Gandhi alleged.

Despite raising the matter in Parliament, holding multiple pressers, and even penning an article that made national headlines, Gandhi says the Election Commission stonewalled all requests for data — particularly machine-readable voter rolls which could have made verification straightforward.

Karnataka’s Mahadevapura: The Smoking Gun?

If Maharashtra raised eyebrows, it was Karnataka that, according to Gandhi, delivered concrete evidence of electoral theft. The Congress had expected to win at least 16 Lok Sabha seats in the state, but ended up with nine. The most glaring discrepancy emerged from the Mahadevapura Assembly segment in Bangalore Central.

Here's the data Gandhi presented:

• Congress won five of six Assembly segments under the Bangalore Central seat.

• Yet, BJP won the Lok Sabha seat by 32,707 votes — entirely thanks to Mahadevapura, where it registered a stunning lead of 1,14,046 votes.

“This made no mathematical sense. So we rolled up our sleeves and went to work,” Gandhi said.

A team of around 40 volunteers spent six months manually reviewing printed voter rolls — a process that could have taken minutes had the EC provided electronic data. What they found, Gandhi said, was damning:

• 11,965 duplicate names

• 40,009 entries with non-existent or fake addresses

• 10,452 bulk voters crammed into single locations

• 4,132 voters with invalid or missing photos

• 33,692 suspicious new voters registered via misused Form 6

“All in all, over 1 lakh votes in one constituency alone were compromised. This is no longer a hunch. This is evidence,” he said.

EC Under Fire: “Is It Hiding the Crime or Solving It?”

Gandhi’s press conference didn’t just stop at data. He alleged an institutional cover-up, accusing the Election Commission of withholding digital data and curbing access to CCTV footage from polling stations.

“Why hide the footage? Why change the rules now, after the fact? If you're innocent, you don’t destroy the evidence,” he said. “The EC was supposed to guard the temple of democracy, not burn it down.”

He warned that if the Election Commission does not make machine-readable voter rolls for the past 10–15 years publicly available and restores access to booth CCTV footage, it would be guilty of obstructing justice.

“This Isn’t Politics — This Is a Crime Scene”

In perhaps the most powerful moment of the presser, Rahul Gandhi stated:

“This is no longer just about an election. This is a full-blown attack on the Constitution. And every polling officer who participated will be held accountable when we return to power.”

He went on to say that the voter list is not the property of any party or institution — “It belongs to the people of India. And the people have the right to know what has been done in their name.”

Bangalore Protest March Set for Thursday

Gandhi announced that he, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, and several senior INDIA bloc leaders will lead a protest march in Bangalore on Friday, focusing specifically on Mahadevapura — which they now see as “Exhibit A” in a national pattern of vote fraud.”

“This is just one Assembly seat. Imagine what’s happening in the rest of the country,” Gandhi said. “We believe this fraud is widespread — state after state, list after list.”

BJP’s Explanation Not Enough, Says Gandhi

Asked about the BJP’s claims of victory due to welfare schemes like Ladli Behna, the Ram Mandir push, and nationalistic sentiment around Pulwama, Gandhi dismissed them.

“Anti-incumbency is universal in democracies. Why is it that only BJP seems immune? The numbers don’t add up, and now we know why,” he said.

A Tipping Point for Electoral Transparency?

Rahul Gandhi concluded by saying that the INDIA bloc’s fight is no longer just electoral — it’s constitutional. He reiterated that public institutions must act in the interest of the citizen, not of any ruling party.

“If the EC wants to redeem itself, now is the time. Show the data. Release the CCTV footage. Otherwise, it will go down in history not as a neutral arbiter, but as an enabler of democratic decay.”

Watch The Full Press Conference Here:

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