Rahul Gandhi Alleges 25 Lakh Fake Votes in Haryana Under ‘Operation Sarkar Chori’

New Delhi: Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of rigging the Haryana Assembly elections through what he called “Operation Sarkar Chori” (Operation Government Theft). He claimed that over 25 lakh votes were manipulated to favour the BJP and overturn what he described as a clear Congress victory.

Addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi, Gandhi alleged large-scale voter fraud, including 5.21 lakh duplicate entries, 93,174 invalid voters, and 19.26 lakh bulk voters.

“We have what we call the H-Files. It shows how an entire state was stolen. This is not about individual constituencies—this is happening at the state and national level,” Gandhi said.

He accused the Chief Election Commissioner and two other election commissioners of being “in partnership” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, alleging that they colluded to manipulate the results.

According to Gandhi, all pre-election surveys and exit polls predicted a strong Congress performance in Haryana, but the final results told a different story. “For the first time, postal ballots went completely against the trend. Congress was projected to win 73 seats, while the BJP only 17. Yet, the result was reversed,” he said.

The Congress leader claimed his team found 25,41,144 fake entries in the Haryana voter list. Among the irregularities, he cited the case of a woman listed 223 times in two polling booths, and even a Brazilian model’s photograph appearing 22 times under different Indian names like “Seema,” “Sweety,” and “Saraswati.”

He further alleged that 1.24 lakh voters had fake photographs, and that several BJP leaders were registered in multiple states. “A BJP leader in Palwal has 66 voters registered at his house, while another address had 500 voters. Dalchand and Prahlad, both BJP functionaries, are registered in both UP and Haryana,” Gandhi said.

He also pointed out that many names were listed under “House No. Zero,” a category for homeless citizens. “When we checked, these people were living in proper homes. The Chief Election Commissioner is lying to the people of India. This is not an error—it’s fraud,” he alleged.

Gandhi accused the Election Commission of destroying CCTV footage to hide evidence and of deliberately ignoring duplicate entries to “protect the BJP’s system.” He also played a clip of Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, who, two days before counting, said the BJP had a “system in place.”

“Look at his smile and the confidence. He knew what was happening,” Gandhi remarked.

This controversy marks another major clash between the Congress and the Election Commission. Gandhi reiterated that his party has “concrete, 100 per cent proof” of voter manipulation not only in Haryana but also in Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh, claiming that voter IDs were deleted using fake logins and phone numbers from outside the states.

He accused the ECI of “defending the murderers of democracy” by refusing to release details of deleted voters and alleged that many deletions targeted communities supporting opposition parties.

Earlier this year, Gandhi had made similar allegations of voter fraud in the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency, claiming over 1 lakh fake votes were added in 2024 to secure a BJP victory by just over 32,000 votes.

He concluded his address with a touch of sarcasm, sharing a photograph of himself drinking tea with what he called “dead voters from Bihar,” thanking the Election Commission for the “unique experience.”