BJP, EC did 'sarkar chori' during Haryana elections: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: After his claims of ‘vote chori’ in Karnataka’s Mahadevapura and Aland, top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday stepped up his attack on the BJP and Election Commission, alleging ‘sarkar chori’ (stealing government) in Haryana with 25 lakh “fake” entries in the rolls, including what he claimed were repeated use of a Brazilian model’s photograph and UP leaders registering as voters in the state.

An ‘FAQ’ shared by Congress called the expose a “hydrogen bomb on democracy” even as the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha accused the EC of being in partnership with PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to “destroy the democratic foundation” of the country and “systematically” helping the BJP.

Even as Rahul said he would be back with a similar presentation on Bihar claiming that ‘vote chori’ will happen, the Election Commission asked why Congress Booth Level Agents in Haryana did not file objections while Union Minister Kiren Rijiju alleged that the Congress leader was in collusion with anti-India forces while “making false and illogical claims” to hide his failures.

At his third press conference on ‘vote chori’ in three months, Rahul alleged five methods as part of a “centralised effort” to “convert the landslide victory” of his party “into a loss” in Haryana.

Playing a video of Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini saying two days before counting that the BJP would win and that “we have a ‘vyavastha’ (system) in place”, he said, “what exactly is this ‘vyavastha’ and it includes duplicate voters, invalid addresses, bulk voters in single addresses, adding voters who are also registered in other states and targeted deletions.”

Citing the electoral roll to claim that 25.41 lakh voters were fake voters, he said it would mean one in eight or 12.5% voters in Haryana during the Assembly elections last October were fake.

Despite that, he said Congress lost in eight seats cumulatively by just 22,779 votes. The difference between Congress and BJP votes in total were 1.18 lakh, he said.

He said there were 5.21 lakh voters with the same name and age among other details within the same seat. There were 1.2 lakh entries where voters share the same photograph but with different names and details.

“I was in shock, I simply could not believe what we found. I asked the team to cross check multiple times. I want young people, Gen Z to understand this clearly as your future is being stolen,” he
said.

Displaying the picture of a woman he identified as a Brazilian model, Rahul said her photograph appears 22 times in 10 booths in Rai constituency with names like Seema, Sweety and Saraswati.

In Mulana, he said a woman’s photo appeared 223 times in two booths while in Tigaon, a woman’s photo appeared 100 times across 10 booths.

Rahul said his team also discovered invalid addresses for 93,174 voters and referred to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s remarks that ‘zero’ is added as addresses for homeless people as well as for whom house number has not been allotted.

He counted 19.26 lakh voters as ‘bulk voters’ and cited the examples of 66 people registering as voters in a BJP district vice president’s house and 501 in another house, which could not be found.

Rahul also claimed that they have found thousands of voters who are on the rolls in both Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, including sarpanches aligned to BJP from Mathura district.

He also claimed that they could locate 3.5 lakh deletions between Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. In Booth No 1 in Rai assembly seat, it was claimed that 128 people who voted in Lok Sabha polls could not do so in Assembly polls five months apart as their names were deleted.

Rahul said that top five exit polls had predicted a Congress sweep in Haryana and even the party led in 73 of the 90 seats after postal votes were counted.

It was surprising that for the first time in Haryana, the postal votes were different from the result, he said.

BJP: Attempt to defame India

Dismissing Rahul Gandhi's claims of vote theft in the Haryana Assembly polls as "false and baseless" the ruling BJP on Wednesday accused the Congress leader of raising questions on the Election Commission (EC) to hide his failures and defame India's democracy. Details on Page 10

EC: Why flaws not flagged earlier ?

Rahul Gandhi’s vote manipulation charge is “unfounded” as no appeals were filed against the electoral rolls in Haryana nor was any multiple voting flagged when it happened Election Commission officials said on Wednesday. Details on Page 10