Rahul Gandhi's Voter List Fraud Allegations Raise Serious Questions On Election Credibility: ECI Urged To Act

The Election Commission of India (ECI) should be concerned that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s charge of voter list manipulation in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party poses a serious question on the credibility of elections. Gandhi presented purported evidence to the media from the electoral rolls of the Mahadevapura segment of the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha constituency, making the point that the 114,046 vote margin of the victorious BJP here in the 2024 poll over the Congress was abnormally higher than the margins in other segments as well as the overall winning margin of 32,707 votes.

The specific instances of alleged fraud involving 100,250 voter entries involve the inclusion of scores of voters in a single-room house, multiple registrations of the same persons, voters added using nil personal details or addresses, the absence of voter photos, and a verified instance of votes recorded for the same person in different booths. Extending his argument, the Congress leader alleged a similar pattern in other states, claiming a fundamental threat to Indian democracy because the 2024 Lok Sabha poll results, marginally favouring the BJP, were thus under a cloud.

Notably, he made a distinction between allegations of fraud using electronic voting machines and the threat to the very foundation of elections that depend on a genuine voter list. On the controversy surrounding the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, he preferred a separate discussion in the state.

Given that Gandhi’s charges are specific and the records used official, the ECI response has to be earnest and reassuring. Its demand for submissions under oath by the Congress leader, therefore, appears dilatory. Voters are justified in expecting unreserved transparency in elections, and only a full disclosure by the ECI can add to their confidence.

In political theory, elections by themselves are not the sole determinant of a healthy democracy, but free, fair and frequent polls are fundamental to its existence. As the most populous country, where citizens change governments using the popular vote, it is vital for India to preserve the integrity of the electoral process and deepen transparency.

Preserving CCTV footage of the polling, publishing machine-readable voter lists and expanding voter verifiable paper audit trails (VVPAT) to statistically significant levels in every constituency are basic to strong electoral democracy.

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It convinces no one in the age of big data and unlimited video storage capacities that CCTV footage cannot be preserved beyond 45 days, for instance. Leaving aside the politics of the Congress charge and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav’s talk of a poll boycott in Bihar in response to vote theft, the ECI cannot avoid addressing the individual instances of alleged fraud that Gandhi has claimed. The electoral roll is a public document, and privacy cannot be a defence against charges of malpractice.