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Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi last week claimed that India’s election authority had enabled “vote theft” to boost Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 general elections.
Gandhi, a key figure in the Indian National Congress (INC) party, told a press conference that electoral rolls in a key state had been manipulated to favor Prime Minister Modi’s BJP in last year’s polls.
The opposition leader also said that his party found major discrepancies upon analyzing electoral data published by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The Election Commission of India (ECI) quickly refuted Gandhi’s claims, while the BJP accused the opposition of trying to create a “state of anarchy” by undermining public confidence in the electoral process.
The opposition bloc had staged a protest in the capital, calling on the parliament to hold a session to discuss the allegations. Ghandi was detained in New Delhi on Monday, along with other opposition leaders, as they marched to the ECI office to protest.
“This fight is not political; this fight is to save the Constitution,” Gandhi said after he was detained.
Rahul Gandhi the grandson of the nation’s first female Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and son of another former Prime Minister Rajiv GandhiImage: Syanantak Ghosh/DW What are the claims based on? The opposition’s analysis focused on the Mahadevapura assembly constituency, part of the city of Bangalore’s assembly segment in the southern Karnataka state. The official vote count shows the INC losing the election to the BJP candidate by more than 114,000 votes.
But Gandhi alleged that the INC found proof of malpractice in over 100,000 entries in Mahadevapura’s electoral rolls for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
He alleged there were duplicate voters, bogus addresses, bulk voters at a single address, invalid photos and misuse of new voter registration forms.
In one instance, he claimed that 46 voters from different families listed a single-bedroom house as their proof of residence. He said when Congress staff visited the address in question, the people did not live there.
He went on to question how secure “the idea of one man, one vote” is in India. Gandhi also pointed to the ECI’s refusal to share digital voter rolls, providing only non-machine-readable data, and restricting access to CCTV footage of polling booths, which, he claimed, enabled the BJP to “steal” the election.
He also alleged similar electoral malpractice in state elections in Haryana and Maharashtra in October and November 2024.
India’s general election is considered to be the world’s largest democratic exercise, with almost a billion people casting their vote in 2024 to elect the 543 members of the lower house of parliament.
This mammoth undertaking is overseen by the ECI and involves 15 million election officials across the 28 states and eight union territories. Voting is done in stages and takes 6 weeks to complete.
Last year, Modi’s BJP lost its absolute majority, but managed to stay in power and remain the single largest party winning 240 seats. The Congress party claimed 99 seats.
How are the ECI and BJP responding? In a post on X, the ECI said that Gandhi was trying to evade procedure and mislead Indian voters.
In a statement, Karnataka’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) rejected Gandhi’s claims, pointing out that election results can be challenged only through an election petition before the High Court.
The commission also urged Gandhi to provide documentary evidence under oath.
“Either sign the declaration on issues you have raised in the press conference, which you believe is true, or else apologize to the nation,” the ECI said on X.
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However, a former chief election commissioner of India, Om Prakash Rawat, told DW the ECI should have done more to directly address Ghandi’s claims by immediately requesting an inquiry.
“In the past we have always found the facts and put them in the public domain to settle everything. This asking for an oath makes the matter linger, creating confusion among the public,” he said.
In turn, the BJP went on the offensive against the Congress leader, with national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia saying Gandhi must resign from Parliament if he does not have faith in the ECI.
The ruling party also called for him to submit the declaration under oath.
In a post on X, the BJP accused Gandhi of “spreading falsehoods, avoiding evidence, maligning democratic institutions, and misleading the public.”
Gandhi reportedly listed hotels as voter addresses India has a very large migrant population, out of whom many use voter ID cards a form of identification and to find work. Many often list their temporary addresses to apply for voter ID, which might explain the numerous people listed under the same addresses.
A report by the Indian Express newspaper found some of the addresses highlighted by Gandhi were paid accommodations and hostels.
Moreover, the mistaken use new voter registration forms instead of the one for transferring residential addresses has the potential to create multiple entries.
However, the ECI’s software should then have flagged multiple entries of the same person in the voter list.
What could happen next? During Modi’s tenure, the ECI has faced its share of controversies. This includes a new law changing the process for appointing the election body’s heads and its muted response to Modi’s speeches using inflammatory rhetoric towards Muslims in the run-up to last year’s polls.
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Gandhi’s voter fraud allegations also come as the ECI faces intense scrutiny over a controversial revision of the voter list in the eastern state of Bihar ahead of its November elections.
Talking to DW under condition of anonymity, a senior journalist who spent a decade covering the ECI said that allegations of electoral malpractice have always been around.
“This skepticism isn’t new. For instance, after the BJP’s loss in the 2004 elections, some party members claimed voting machines were rigged. A BJP leader even wrote a book arguing that electronic voting machines could be rigged,” he said.
However, Gandhi’s allegations come at a time of extreme polarization and “have intensified existing fears among voters about the fairness of the electoral process.”
The ECI “must act transparently” to restore confidence, he said.
Edited by: Wesley Rahn
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