| Part of Democratic backsliding in India | |
| Date | August 2025 – present |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Vote chori |
| Type | Politics of India |
| Cause | Alleged irregularities by the Election Commission of India |
| Motive | Alleged rigging of the 2024 Indian general election and state assembly elections |
| Perpetrator |
|
On 1 August 2025, Rahul Gandhi, the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, stated that his party, the Indian National Congress (INC), had found evidence of electoral fraud during the 2024 Indian general election. On 7 August, he alleged that the electoral rolls prepared by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency in Karnataka consisted of various discrepancies, and accused the commission of "vote chori" (vote theft) and indulging in systematic fraud, in collusion with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The ECI dismissed the claims and urged him to submit them through a signed declaration. On 17 August, Gyanesh Kumar, the chief election commissioner, added that the allegations must be filed under oath within seven days, failing which they would be deemed “baseless and invalid," citing Rule 20(3)(B) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
Since then, the opposition parties led by the INC have organised protests and social media campaigns over the ECI's revision of Bihar's electoral rolls. In reaction to the allegation, several members and affiliates of the BJP have defended the commission, while counter accusing the opposition parties of having indulged in electoral fraud.
Since the victory of Narendra Modi, leading the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in the 2014 Indian general election, India has witnessed significant democratic backsliding. [1] [2]
Laws on sedition, defamation, and counterterrorism have been regularly employed to crack down on critics and dissenting voices, including the detention and arrest of opposition leaders. [3] [4] The government has moved to further stifle critics in academia and the press, leading to the rise of an increasingly right-wing and pro-government mainstream media. [5] [6] The country's referee institutions, such as the judiciary, investigative agencies, the Election Commission of India (ECI), Lokpal, among others have been weakened through coercion, patronage, and ideological alignment with the BJP, leading to an erosion of public trust in institutions. [7] [8]
In 2021, the V-Dem Institute downgraded India from 'flawed democracy' to 'electoral autocracy'. [9] In 2021, Freedom House downgraded India from "free" to "partly free," a title the country has since held for three consecutive years since. [10] [11] [12]
From 1947 to March 2, 2023 the appointment of the Central Election Commissioner was done solely by the Prime Minister and the Union Cabinet. On March 2, 2023, a five-judge Constitution Bench led by Justice K. M. Joseph held that appointments must be made based on the advice of a committee including the PM, LoP, and CJI—as a temporary or interim measure, until Parliament passes a law specifying a permanent process as verdict for the Anoop Baranwal v Union of India. As per the order, on August 2023, the government introduced the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023 and was passed in Parliament in December 2023. The committee now consisted of the Prime Minister, The Leader of Opposition ( who was now included for the first time in the election process ) and a Union Minister. Election commissioners were now to be appointed by the President of India on the recommendation of a three-member panel, named the Selection Committee, through a majority vote.
Earlier, the opposition Indian National Congress had accused the ECI of collusion with the ruling BJP, and of rigging the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. [13]
The Bombay High Court dismissed petitions challenging the November 2024 Maharashtra Assembly election results, which alleged that around 76 lakh votes were cast after the 6 PM closing time—a practice the petition claimed was unlawful. Justices Girish Kulkarni and Arif Doctor stated: “There is nothing on record that at any polling station in the state of Maharashtra, any untoward incident or fraud took place... we fail to discern how, in the absence of any tangible material acceptable in law, which also needs to be booth-wise, there was any fraudulent voting.” They also called the petition “farcical” and an abuse of legal process. The petition was further criticized as a waste of judicial time, with courts noting that unsubstantiated claims are insufficient, especially when there’s no material evidence or proper election petition in place. The Supreme Court upheld the Bombay High Court’s dismissal, declining to intervene. It pointed out that the challenge lacked required booth-wise evidence and it was filed as a writ petition—not as a legally prescribed election petition under the Representation of the People Act; The petitioner lacked locus standi (legal standing) to contest the statewide election results
As on the 2024 Haryana State Election, the Supreme Court received a petition, filed seeking re-polls in 20 Haryana assembly constituencies, based on allegations like EVM battery discrepancies, which Congress claimed correlated with election outcomes. The Supreme Court rejected this plea, including any request to stay the oath-taking of newly elected legislators. During hearings, Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud warned: a “You want us to stall the oath-taking of an elected government? We are putting you on guard... we will impose costs.”
On 1 August 2025, Rahul Gandhi, the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, alleged electoral fraud during the 2024 Indian general election. He referred to the evidence as an "atom bomb" and stated that the ruling pa rty will have "no place to hide." [14] [15] [16] On 6 August, the opposition demanded a discussion on the special exercise carried out by the ECI for the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar. Arjun Ram Meghwal, the law minister, asked Rahul Gandhi to present the evidences regarding the fraud and stated that the functioning of the election commission cannot be debated in parliament, citing a previous precedence by Lok Sabha speaker Balram Jakhar. [17]
On 7 August, Rahul Gandhi, in a meeting of the press, alleged that the election commission added fraudulent voters to the electoral roll in the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency in Karnataka, and accused the commission of rigging the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress lost the election to the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency, of which the assembly segment was part of, by 114,000 votes despite leading in the remaining six assembly segments of the constituency. [18] However in reality the election results were a 4-4 split instead of a 7-1 split that Rahul Gandhi had said. The Congress led in Saravanagar Congress led in four assembly segments under Bangalore Central: Sarvagnanagar, Shivajinagar, Shanti Nagar, Chamrajpet. The BJP led in four segments, not just Mahadevapura ( BJP lead of 1,15,046 votes ) but also in CV Raman Nagar — BJP lead of 20,114 votes, Gandhi Nagar — BJP lead of 23,324 votes, Rajaji Nagar — BJP lead of 39,429 votes.
In earlier Lok Sabha elections (2009 and 2014), BJP had led in five out of eight segments; in 2019 and 2024, both BJP and Congress led in four segments each.
He further stated that the evidences were a result of a six month long research conducted by the party, and challenged the election commission to publish a electronic voter list and CCTV footage to debunk his claims.[1]Rahul Gandhi accused the commission of systematic fraud, and claimed that the electoral rolls in Mahadevapura consisted of 11,956 duplicate voters, 40,009 with invalid addresses, 10,452 with bulk registrations (including an example case of 80 people with the same address), 4,132 with invalid photos, and 33,692 misusing Form 6 for registering as new voters. However the state electoral lists are prepared by the State Election Commission whose appointments are done by the respective state governments ( in Karnataka it the Siddharamaia led Congress Governement). A state Congress minister Rajanna publicly questioned Congress’s narrative on electoral malpractice in the recent Lok Sabha elections. He said that irregularities in the voter list for Mahadevapura occurred “during our government’s tenure” and lamented the party’s silence at the time. This directly contradicted the party's public charge of "vote theft" by the BJP and was seen as deeply embarrassing. The party’s high command intervened, asking him to resign. He submitted his resignation on the opening day of the Monsoon legislative session—reportedly under immense pressure and with strong signals from the top party leadership.
As per Dipankar Sarkar, a migrant resident of house no. 35, the alleged house which hosted 80 voters, the house was a small 10 ft (3.0 m) high building. As per The Print, officers from the district election office had queried about the 78 other voters in the residence, and had later had not confirmed their availability. Later The owner Jayaram Reddy, clarified that while the voter registrations used rental agreements for voter IDs, those tenants—often migrant laborers—no longer resided there at the time of the election. He said they registered at that address but did not necessarily vote from there during the polls. Rahul Gandhi also said that many voters had invalid father names, and house numbers. He cited an example of a 70-year old woman named Shakuni Devi, who was registered twice as a voter. Contradicting the claims however In a direct statement, Shakun Rani and her husband expressed that they felt harassed and distressed by media attention. She reiterated that she voted only once, pointing to the impact of the repeated allegations on their privacy and well-being.
The election commission dismissed the allegations as "baseless," and reverted that the Congress did not file any appeal or concern regarding the electoral rolls prior to the elections. It urged Rahul Gandhi to submit a written declaration with the allegations as per the rule 20(3)(B) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. [19] The commission also reverted to the allegation of a particular voter Shlleged accusation of inclusion and exclusion of non-eligible and eligible voters by the election commission in the respective states. [20] On 17 August, chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar responded to the claims of Rahul Gandhi stating that if the claims are not made under a declaration under oath within seven days, it would be considered as "baseless and invalid." He further stated that if Rahul Gandhi is not willing to submit a signed affidavit, he should then "apologise for his allegations." [21]
On 11 August, about 200 lawmakers and their supporters held a protest against the special intensive revision exercise of the electoral rolls carried out in Bihar. [22] They marched to the office of the election commission office in New Delhi, and claimed that it is a government conspiracy for "vote theft" which will lead to disenfranchisement. [23] [24] The Delhi Police detained multiple protesters including Rahul Gandhi. [25] Protests were also held by the opposition in West Bengal. [26] Bharat Rashtra Samithi chairman K. T. Rama Rao accused the Congress of vote theft in the 2023 Telangana state elections. [27] Karnataka state minister K. N. Rajanna of the Congress condemned Rahul Gandhi's remarks on the election commission. He was removed from the cabinet for his remarks against his party leader, which sparked protests by his followers in Tumakuru district. [28] [29]
On 12 August, members of parliament from the Congress and other opposition parties protested the alleged electoral fraud by wearing t-shirts which bore the face of Minta Devi, a 124-year-old woman from the Daraunda Assembly constituency. [30] In response, union minister Kiren Rijiju criticised the protesters for allegedly "mocking" Minta Devi and claiming her to be 124 years of age. [31] Minta Devi, who was reportedly 35 years old, condemned the use of her picture in the protest without her permission. [32] The district administration later stated that a clerical error was responsible for the incorrect age. [33]
Anurag Thakur of the BJP called the allegations as an excuse for the defeat of congress in the elections and as a political agenda on the backdrop of the upcoming elections in Bihar. On 13 August, the BJP counter accused the opposition parties of electoral irregularities in various parliamentary seats such as Rae Bareli, Wayanad, Diamond Harbour, and Kannauj and demanded resignation of the respective opposition members Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Abhishek Banerjee, and Akhilesh Yadav representing those constituencies respectively. At a presentation held at the BJP headquarters in Delhi, the party alleged irregularities during the elections for the Kolathur assembly seat in Tamil Nadu represented by Tamil Nadu chief minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M. K. Stalin and in the Mainpuri parliamentary seat in Uttar Pradesh represented by Samajwadi party leader Dimple Yadav. It further accused the opposition leaders for rigging elections, and blamed the opposition of protecting their "vote bank" of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. [34] [35]
On 13 August, Rahul Gandhi reportedly met with seven voters of Bihar whose names were allegedly removed from the electoral rolls declaring them as dead. [36] On 14 August, he further declared that the opposition will set out a protest in all 30 districts of Bihar in three phases, beginning from 17 August, which was later postponed by a week. [37] On 15 August, Congress launched "Vote chori se azaadi" campaign on their social media handles, and requested people to change their display pictures to support their protest against the election commission. [38] On 18 August, it was reported in the media that the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance was contemplating about moving an impeachment motion against the chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. [39]
The district administration claimed the discrepancy was a clerical error during the online application process...