Theft ECI Vote
New Delhi
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday launched a sharp attack on the Election Commission of India, accusing it of eroding public trust in democracy by allegedly facilitating vote theft. The allegation echoed the Indian National Congress party’s long-standing claims questioning the credibility of the poll panel.
Rahul Gandhi’s remarks came moments after the counting of votes began for 29 civic body elections in Maharashtra, including the high-stakes Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections. The timing of his criticism was seen by the ruling party as an attempt to reinforce the opposition’s narrative of voter fraud in the municipal polls. A day earlier, the Thackeray cousins had also raised allegations of election irregularities, questioning the effectiveness of indelible ink used to mark voters.
Taking to X on Friday morning, Rahul Gandhi wrote, Election Commission gaslighting citizens is how trust has collapsed in our democracy. Vote Chori is an anti-national act. The post intensified the political slugfest at a crucial juncture when early counting trends were beginning to emerge across Maharashtra.
The Bharatiya Janata Party responded swiftly and aggressively, dismissing the allegations as baseless and politically motivated. BJP leaders argued that the opposition was attempting to pre-emptively discredit the election process in anticipation of defeat. According to them, instead of accepting the mandate of the people, the Congress and its allies were seeking to make the Election Commission a scapegoat.
BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala labelled the opposition a bahana brigade, accusing Rahul Gandhi of trying to discredit institutions. Accepting defeat before counting ends? Rahul is back to doing what he does best — discredit, distort and disinform, he said, adding that while concerns over ink deserved examination, no concrete case of fraud had been reported during Thursday’s polling.
Another BJP leader, Pradeep Bhandari, alleged that what he termed a ‘parivarvadi’ party was attempting to evade accountability by fabricating narratives. In a post on X, he claimed that such allegations repeatedly collapse both in courts of law and in public opinion.
