NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has ramped up accusations that the Election Commission of India (ECI) is facilitating vote theft to benefit the BJP. Speaking in Parliament on July 25, 2025, he claimed his party has “100% proof” that in a Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka, the ECI “allowed cheating,” pledging, “we are going to come for you.”
Gandhi also cited anomalies in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, alleging massive and suspicious additions to electoral rolls—including 32–39 lakh new voters added in just months.
Further allegations extended to Bihar, where Gandhi has called the EC a “vote theft wing” of the BJP. He accused the EC of orchestrating the exclusion of marginalized voters via the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process ahead of those local polls
Congress Investigation: “Atom Bomb” Revelations?
Rahul Gandhi claimed his party carried out a six‑month forensic investigation, digitizing the voter rolls of one Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka. According to him, the results were an “open and shut” confirmation of manipulation by the EC in favor of the BJP.
Deputy CM D.K. Shivakumar and Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah echoed these allegations, stating they found “bogus voters” and electoral roll discrepancies in urban booths, promising to make all documentation public
A nationwide protest led by Rahul Gandhi is set for August 5, 2025, in Bengaluru, where a memorandum will be submitted to the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer. The Congress will formally expose its findings and challenge the EC
EC and BJP Push Back: Denials & Accusations of Fabrication
Election Commission Response
The ECI has consistently dismissed Gandhi’s claims as “baseless,” “unwarranted,” and “completely absurd.” It emphasized that all electoral processes—roll revisions, polling, counting—are overseen by thousands of officials and party-appointed agents, with full legal recourse available through election petitions
Regarding Maharashtra claims, the ECI noted that Congress never filed appeals after draft rolls were published, raising questions about the timing and credibility of Gandhi’s allegations
BJP State Leaders’ Rebuttals
Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis rejected accusations as politically motivated, countering Turner that voter turnout was high in many areas where the Congress had won.
He condemned Gandhi’s claims as lies and said the BJP would not accept attempts to undermine democratic institutions.
Despite political allegations, technical assessments of EVMs show no evidence of tampering. Recent verification drives in Maharashtra across ten constituencies confirmed that EVM vote counts matched VVPAT slips, reinforcing ECI’s position that the machines are robust and tamper‑proof.
Rahul Gandhi and the Congress have made explosive claims regarding the Election Commission’s complicity in vote theft, supported internally by multi‑month investigations, but lacking third‑party confirmation. Meanwhile, the EC and BJP reaffirm legal compliance and procedural transparency, anchored by independently verified EVM reliability.
As Congress pushes for mass protests and public disclosure, the trust in India’s top electoral body—and the democratic process itself—is being put to a rigorous test.
