Everything you need to know about Congress’ vote theft allegations
New Delhi: August 7, 2025: In a bold and scathing presentation titled "Vote Chori", Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has levelled serious allegations against the Election Commission of India (EC), claiming the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were marred by organised and systemic voter fraud. The 70-slide presentation, prepared by the Congress party, was publicly shared and is being cited by the Opposition as proof of what they describe as "theft of democracy."
The Congress party claims that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) retained power by stealing votes through deliberate manipulation of electoral rolls and processes, particularly in key constituencies like Bangalore Central.
Key Allegations by the Opposition
According to the presentation, Rahul Gandhi and his party believe the following indicators point to manipulation:
Unusual victory margins for BJP despite visible anti-incumbency.
Discrepancy between opinion/exit polls and actual results.
Sudden spike in voter turnout post 5 PM, which the party finds suspicious.
Massive addition of new voters in just five months — allegedly more than the total number of voters added in five years.
These, the Congress argues, led to public doubts and have now been confirmed, in their view, by a detailed analysis of one key seat.
Focus on Bangalore Central: The Congress Case Study
The Congress has chosen Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat as its main case study to expose what it calls “mass-scale vote theft”.
In this seat, Congress candidate Mansoor Ali Khan lost to BJP’s P.C. Mohan by a margin of 32,707 votes. However, when broken down assembly-wise, the Congress says the defeat was largely due to the Mahadevapura Assembly Segment, where the BJP had an overwhelming lead of 1,15,586 votes. In contrast, in all other segments combined, Congress claims it was leading by around 82,000 votes.
This led the party to launch its own investigation into Mahadevapura.
Congress Investigation: Findings from Mahadevapura
The Congress party says it manually reviewed lakhs of entries from physical electoral rolls — amounting to over 7 feet of paper — and found 1,00,250 fraudulent votes. These were categorised into five types of what they call “Vote Chori”:
Duplicate Voters – 11,965 entries
Voters appearing multiple times on the rolls within the same or different constituencies. One voter, Gurkirat Singh Dang, was reportedly found listed in Mahadevapura, multiple times.
Fake or Invalid Addresses – 40,009 entries
Voters with non-existent addresses, or just symbols like “0”, “-”, or “#”. Many addresses were untraceable.
Bulk Voters in One Address – 10,452 entries
Dozens of voters listed under the same room or commercial property. For example:
80 voters listed in House No. 35
46 voters in House No. 791
68 voters in a brewery called “153 Biere Club”
Invalid or Unclear Photographs – 4,132 entries
Voter photos that were so small or distorted they were unrecognisable. Congress claims these make in-person verification impossible.
Misuse of Form 6 – 33,692 entries
Form 6 is meant for first-time voters. Congress alleges that this was weaponised to register duplicate voters. One example was a 70-year-old woman named Shakun Rani, found registered twice in a span of two months, each with slightly altered photos and names — and both entries had reportedly cast votes.
The presentation claims that these irregularities explain the abnormal margins in Mahadevapura and strongly contributed to Congress’s loss in Bangalore Central.
Why Congress Claims the EC Is Involved
Rahul Gandhi accused the Election Commission of actively evading scrutiny, listing several actions allegedly taken to hide the irregularities:
EC refused to share digital voter rolls, forcing Congress to go through paper records.
EC changed rules to limit access to CCTV footage from polling booths.
Congress wrote four letters demanding voter rolls but received no transparent response.
Allegations that the EC is destroying or has destroyed records critical to verifying these claims.
The party says all of this amounts to deliberate suppression of transparency and accuses the EC of helping the ruling party.
Rahul Gandhi further claimed that the vote theft wasn’t limited to one seat or one state. He highlighted that:
In Haryana, Congress lost eight seats by a combined margin of just 22,779 votes, out of nearly 2 crore votes cast.
BJP won 25 Lok Sabha seats with a margin of under 33,000 votes.
These slim victories, he argues, were enough for the BJP to retain power in 2024.
Political Reactions and Demands
The Congress party is using this presentation to rally public and legal pressure. They’ve raised the issue in:
Parliament (on 3 Feb and 10 Mar 2025)
Press conferences (such as one on 7 Feb 2025)
Editorials published in newspapers
Four written letters to the Election Commission
Rahul Gandhi concluded in the presentation that India’s democracy is under serious threat, claiming the EC is no longer functioning as a neutral body but as an enabler of electoral fraud.
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Riyan Parag likely to be fined 25 percent of match fees for vaping inside dressing room
New Delhi (PTI): Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag is set to be fined 25 per cent of his match fee for bringing the game into "disrepute" after being caught vaping on camera during the IPL game against Punjab Kings in Mullanpur.
Parag's actions during the Royals' chase on Tuesday night drew condemnation on social media.
PTI has learned that on field umpires Tanmay Srivastava and Nitin Menon had not reported the matter to match referee Amit Sharma right after the game. They only did that after seeing visual proof and Sharma found Parag guilty for a code of conduct breach as per the IPL guidelines.
The Level 1 offences carries 25 per cent deduction from match fees and one demerit point.
"He is set to be fined a portion of his match fees and a demerit point for a Level 1 offence," said an IPL source.
The Indian government had banned e-cigarettes back in 2019, prohibiting their production, sale and distribution. As per the law, the offender faces imprisonment up to one year and/or a Rs one lakh fine for a first time offence.
"Article 2.21 of IPL Code of Conduct is intended to cover all types of conduct that bring the game into disrepute and which is not specifically and adequately covered by the specific offences set out elsewhere in this Code of Conduct, including Article 2.20," the IPL Code of Conduct states.
"By way of example, Article 2.21 may (depending upon the seriousness and context of the breach) prohibit, without limitation, the following: (a) public acts of misconduct; (b) unruly public behaviour; and (c) inappropriate comments which are detrimental to the interests of the game.
"When assessing the seriousness of the offence, the context of the particular situation, and whether it was deliberate, reckless, negligent, avoidable and/or accidental, shall be considered.
"Further, the person lodging the Report shall determine where on the range of severity the conduct lays (with the range of severity starting at conduct of a minor nature (and hence a Level 1 Offence) up to conduct of an extremely serious nature (and hence a Level 4 Offence)."
Since it is a Level 1 offence there was no need for a hearing.
Parag, who has not had the best of times with the bat this IPL, was seen inhaling an e-cigarette, also known as vaping, in the dressing room during the live broadcast of their game against Punjab Kings. Royals won the game to end Kings' unbeaten run in the tournament.
This is not the first controversy to hit the Royals this season. Earlier this month, team manager Romi Bhinder was fined Rs one lakh for breaching PMOA protocol after being found using his phone in the dugout.
IPL and BCCI officials involved in the conduct of the IPL termed it as a careless act in the age of social media and prying TV cameras.
Royals next host Delhi Capitals at home on Friday night.
