Sources in the Election Commission have firmly responded to Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi's allegations in which he accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of tampering with the mandate in the Haryana Assembly Elections 2024. The poll panel sources maintained that Rahul Gandhi's claims are unfounded and pointed out that there have been zero appeals against electoral rolls in the state. The response came after Rahul Gandhi cited electoral list data from Haryana to claim that 25 lakh entries were "fake" and the assembly polls last year were "stolen", as he accused the Election Commission of colluding with the BJP to make them win.
Gandhi alleged that the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the two election commissioners colluded with the BJP to ensure its victory in Haryana and claimed that "they are in partnership" with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 'Operation Sarkar Chori' was launched to convert the landslide Congress victory into loss in Haryana, the former party president alleged.
Only 22 petitions pending
According to EC sources, there are only 22 election petitions pending in the High Court against 90 Assembly seats. The sources questioned the role of Congress polling agents inside booths, saying, "What were the polling agents of INC doing in the Polling Stations? They are supposed to object if the elector has already voted or if the polling agents doubt the identity of the elector."
EC counters on SIR and BLAs
The sources further raised a sharp counter question asking, "Is Rahul Gandhi supporting SIR, which removes duplicate, dead and shifted voters along with verification of citizenship or is he opposing?" The Election Commission also questioned why there were no objections raised by the Congress Booth Level Agents. "Why were no claims and objections raised by Congress' BLAs during revision to avoid multiple names? Why were no appeals filed by Congress' BLAs during revision to avoid multiple names?," the sources added.
EC sources further said a house number of zero has been given by the BLO where no house number has been allotted by the Municipalities or Panchayats. "Why was no appeal filed by INC during the SIR in Bihar from 1 August to 15 October?" they further asked.
What did Rahul Gandhi allege?
Addressing a press conference at the Indira Bhawan in New Dekhi, Gandhi cited the electoral list of Haryana to claim that 25,41,144 were fake voters with multiple examples of duplicate voters, invalid addresses and bulk voters. "Why is the Election Commission not removing duplicates? It is because if it does so, it would result in fair elections and it doesn't want fair elections," Gandhi said.
"All polls pointed to a Congress victory in Haryana. The five top exit polls said Congress is sweeping. The other thing that was surprising was that for the first time in Haryana, the postal votes were different from the result. In postal ballots, Congress got 73 seats while the BJP got 17 seats," he said.
Gandhi claimed that thousands of people associated with the BJP voted in both UP and Haryana both. During the presser, Gandhi showed a picture of a woman who appears on the voter list 22 times in 10 booths in the Rai assembly constituency, and said this shows that this was a 'centralised operation'. He claimed that the picture of the woman used for multiple entries is from Brazil. She is one of 25 lakh such records in Haryana which is proof of a centralised operation, Gandhi said. He alleged that there were 25,41,144 'vote chori' entries on the list which are fake in Haryana.
Haryana CEO shares key facts after Rahul Gandhi presser
Soon after Rahul Gandhi addressed a press conference on the Haryana Assembly Elections 2024, the Chief Electoral Officer of Haryana put out key facts related to the state polls. The CEO stated that several important points have already been clarified from the Election Commission’s end regarding the electoral process in Haryana. The Chief Electoral Officer also noted that a point-by-point, detailed response to Rahul Gandhi’s remarks will be shared shortly. The CEO said that the comprehensive reply to the LoP's allegations and claims is currently being prepared and will be issued soon.
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