Exposed: Investigation Confirms Voter Roll Irregularities in Haryana Following Rahul Gandhi's Vote Theft Allegations

NDTV's independent investigation has revealed significant irregularities in the voter rolls of Haryana's Rai Assembly constituency, providing new evidence related to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's allegations of "large-scale vote theft" during Haryana's Assembly elections last year.

On Wednesday, Gandhi publicly claimed that approximately 25 lakh votes were "stolen" in the state, representing about 12.5 percent of Haryana's 2 crore registered voters. "This means one in eight voters in Haryana are fake, 12.5 percent," he stated, accusing the Election Commission of either facilitating or ignoring what he termed a "centralised operation."

A key element of the controversy involves a photograph allegedly of a Brazilian model. According to the Opposition Leader, this same photograph appears 22 times across 10 polling booths in the Rai constituency, each time associated with a different identity.

During his press presentation, Gandhi displayed voter list entries showing the woman's image under various names including Sweety, Seema, and Saraswati. Independent verification confirmed this image could be freely downloaded from stock photography websites.

"She votes in 10 different booths in Haryana and has multiple names. This indicates a centralised operation," Gandhi asserted.

He further alleged that in another instance, a single woman's photograph appeared 223 times across two polling booths in the same constituency, adding, "This explains why the Election Commission destroys CCTV footage of booths."

To verify these claims, an NDTV team visited Malikpur village in Sonipat district, part of the Rai constituency. Their investigation uncovered several voters whose names had mysteriously disappeared from the electoral rolls.

In one family, four members—Rahul, Anuj, Sakshi, and Sonia—found their names missing. Another villager, Ajay (son of Krishan), could not locate his name on polling day. Similarly, a couple named Saddam and his wife discovered both their names had been removed.

Anjali Tyagi from Malikpur told NDTV, "The video shown by Rahul Gandhi regarding vote theft features me. I voted in the Lok Sabha polls, but in the Assembly election, my vote was missing. I don't know why my name was removed."

Congress spokesperson Rakesh Sauda rejected the possibility of clerical or technical error, citing the case of "Munesh," a purported voter whose ID card featured the same Brazilian model's image. "There is no woman named Munesh married to anyone in our village. This is not an error—it's a clear case of vote theft," he claimed.

Unveiling what he called the "H-Bomb," Gandhi alleged that a well-orchestrated plan had been executed to "convert Congress's landslide victory into a loss."

"I am questioning the Election Commission and the democratic process in India, and I am doing this with 100 percent proof. We are certain that a plan was implemented to convert Congress's landslide victory into a loss," Gandhi stated.

He noted that exit polls and internal surveys had predicted a Congress win, yet the final results showed a BJP victory. Gandhi referenced a video clip of Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini who, two days after polling, told reporters that "arrangements" had been made and that the BJP was confident of winning.

"What were these arrangements? This is two days after the election when everyone is saying that the Congress party is sweeping the election. This gentleman is very sure and smiling that the BJP has made arrangements," Gandhi questioned.

Gandhi also highlighted the unusual pattern in postal ballots, claiming it was unprecedented in Haryana's electoral history for postal votes to trend opposite to polling booth results.

According to Gandhi, Congress candidates had immediately raised concerns after the results, reporting inconsistencies in polling-day figures. He said the party lost eight constituencies by extremely narrow margins, including one by just 32 votes. Collectively, these narrow defeats amounted to a total margin of 22,779 votes, nearly identical to the margin by which the BJP secured its majority.

Sources within the Election Commission informed NDTV that the Commission regularly conducts a Special Intensive Revision to identify and remove duplicate or invalid entries from electoral rolls.

They questioned why Congress did not raise objections during this process. "They are supposed to object if the elector has already voted or if they doubt the elector's identity," one source stated.

The source also challenged Gandhi's assumption that fake voters supported the BJP, asking, "If Congress leader Pawan Khera has names in the voter lists of two states, is he voting twice?"

According to these sources, the EC's voter database can automatically flag duplicate entries, suggesting that large-scale duplication as alleged would have been readily detected.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju dismissed the allegations as "another baseless narrative" from Rahul Gandhi.

"Polling is happening in Bihar, yet he's telling stories about Haryana. There's nothing left in Bihar, so he's shifting the narrative to Haryana," Rijiju said. "They say they were winning in exit polls and opinion polls. But there's always a difference between poll predictions and actual results. This happens consistently—it's nothing new. We never made any allegations against the Election Commission."