‘Verify claims or apologise to nation’: EC slams Rahul Gandhi’s ‘vote theft’ charge, cites 2018 SC verdict

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his allegations of large-scale voter fraud and challenged him to either formally verify his claims or apologise to the nation. Accusing him of repeating an ‘old political script’, the poll body said in a statement that the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha has raised “baseless” charges similar to those made in 2018 by then Madhya Pradesh Congress President Kamal Nath, which were dismissed by the Supreme Court. “At his recent press conference, Rahul repeated a tired script. In 2018, it was then Kamal Nath, the then President of MPCC; today, it’s the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha playing the same tune,” the EC said.

In 2018, Congress leaders attempted to mislead the court by producing documents from a private website to claim errors in electoral rolls, including instances where “the same face was shown again for as many as 36 voters.” The EC said those defects had been rectified months earlier and the details shared with the party.

“The Court refused to accept the prayer of Kamal Nath. Now, in 2025, they, being aware that the same trick cannot be played in court, are trying to mislead the people by claiming irregularities in the electoral rolls,” it added.

‘Trying to sensationalise issue with baseless claims in media’

The commission referred to a specific case of one name of Aditya Srivastava, which Rahul claimed appeared in three different states. “In fact, [this] was rectified months ago,” it said. It further reminded the Congress leader that the Kamal Nath judgment had “settled” the position on machine-readable electoral rolls, and accused him of disregarding the Supreme Court’s decisions.

“Law provides a specific procedure for both making objections to the roll and for making an appeal. Instead of availing the legal processes, he tried to sensationalise the issue by making baseless claims in the media,” the EC said.

“If Rahul believes in his analysis and believes that his allegations against the EC are true, he should have respect for the law and sign the Declaration, or apologise to the nation for raising absurd allegations against the EC.”

The chief electoral officers (CEOs) of Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Haryana had asked Rahul to submit the names of voters he believes were wrongly included or removed, along with a signed oath under Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.

Rahul alleged ‘vote chori’ in Karnataka constituency

On Thursday, Rahul alleged “vote chori” in a Karnataka constituency involving 1,00,250 votes and irregularities in the rolls.

Dismissing the EC’s demand for a signed declaration, he said, “I am a politician; what I say to the people is my word. I am saying it to the people publicly, take it as an oath. Interestingly, they haven’t denied the information.”

He accused the EC of colluding with the BJP to “undermine democracy” and warned polling officials allegedly involved of consequences if the Opposition came to power.

He also claimed that the EC was “destroying evidence” by limiting the preservation of CCTV and webcasting footage to 45 days unless election results were legally challenged.

“It is the 21st century; you can keep as much data as you want in a hard drive, even 10 years old data, but the Election Commission wants to destroy the CCTV footage in 45 days,” he said.

EC issues detailed rebuttal

The ECI issued a detailed rebuttal to Rahul Gandhi’s five-question challenge, where he accused the poll body of bias, tampering, and shielding the ruling party. It said if Rahul Gandhi does not sign the declaration, it would mean that he does not believe in his analysis, resultant conclusions and is making absurd allegations.

At a press conference on Thursday, Rahul had presented what he called an “atom bomb” of proofs of the ECI resorting to “vote chori”.

BJP’s Amit Malviya scoffed at the Congress leader and said, “... he (is) indulging in political theatre only to obfuscate facts, plant doubts in people’s minds, and tarnish the image of a constitutional body entrusted with free and fair elections.”