In a dramatic political escalation, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday dropped what he called the much-awaited “H-bomb,” alleging massive vote fraud in the Haryana Assembly elections held last year. Gandhi claimed that 25 lakh votes were stolen out of a total of 2 crore, asserting that “one in every eight voters in Haryana is fake.”
Citing irregularities, Gandhi said several Congress candidates sensed foul play soon after polling. “All exit polls showed a Congress sweep, yet the BJP declared victory,” he said, accusing Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini of hinting at pre-arranged results. Gandhi alleged a “centralised operation” to manipulate votes, sharing videos and examples of voter list duplications — including a Brazilian model’s stock photo used 22 times under different names. “This lady votes in 10 booths as Sweety, Seema, and Saraswati,” he said.
He further claimed that 100 voter IDs shared the same woman’s photo in one constituency and that another image appeared 223 times across two booths. “This is why the Election Commission destroys CCTV footage,” he charged, adding that 3.5 lakh names were deleted from voter rolls before the polls. Gandhi questioned the Election Commission’s silence, saying it could remove duplicates “in seconds” but chose not to, “because it helps the BJP.”
The Election Commission, however, dismissed the allegations, asking why Congress polling agents failed to flag fake voters on election day. “If Rahul Gandhi believes in Special Intensive Revisions, why oppose them?” an EC source said.
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju hit back, calling Gandhi’s charges “fake issues.” “Polling is on in Bihar, yet he’s inventing stories about Haryana,” Rijiju said, accusing Gandhi of “diverting attention” and “provoking youth,” while asserting that India’s young voters “stand firmly with Prime Minister Modi.”
