Rahul Gandhi’s claims on Haryana voter list are unfounded: Election Commission of India

As Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, made yet another attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI), this time with respect to the Haryana Assembly election, the poll panel on Wednesday (November 5, 2025) said that the charges were “unfounded” and asked why the Congress had not flagged voters who had allegedly cast multiple votes.

LIVE: Rahul Gandhi’s ‘revelation’ on voter theft on November 5, 2025

The poll body said Mr. Gandhi’s statements indicate his support for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which he had earlier opposed. “On one hand, Rahul Gandhi opposes SIR, which purifies electoral rolls, and on the other, he keeps giving presentations bringing out impurities in past electoral rolls. It is clear that he is supporting SIR despite opposing it in the beginning,” a senior ECI official remarked.

Rahul Gandhi drops ‘H files’ to allege BJP ‘stole’ 2024 Haryana Assembly polls with ECI’s help

Mr. Gandhi alleged that 25 lakh fake voters were listed in Haryana ahead of the election held in October 2024. He shared the voters’ list of the Rai Assembly constituency of Haryana in which the photograph of a Brazilian model was used 22 times across 10 booths as voters with different names.

Mr. Gandhi could present his evidence in the petitions already filed for Rai and Hodal Assembly constituencies in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the ECI official said. The poll body has reiterated that “zero appeals” were filed against the electoral rolls and only 22 election petitions were currently pending in the High Court. An election petition can be filed within 45 days of the announcement of the results in the High Court of that State.

The ECI official also raised questions as to why the Congress’s booth-level agents had not flagged the voters who had allegedly cast multiple votes in Haryana.

On the question of houses numbered ‘zero’ in the rolls, ECI officials said ‘House Number Zero’ is given by a booth-level officer to houses where the panchayat and municipalities have not given numbers.

The BJP had won 48 seats in the Haryana Assembly election of 2024, while the Congress, which was predicted to win by many exit polls, bagged 37 seats. The Indian National Lok Dal won two seats while Independent candidates bagged three in the 90-member Assembly.