Congress Highlights ‘Vote Chori’ Allegations; Multiple Incidents Across India

PTI, NEW DELHI, AUG 13, 2025 :  The Congress on Wednesday stepped up its campaign against alleged ‘vote chori’ by releasing a new video depicting how fake votes were being cast, and party president Mallikarjun Kharge asking people to raise their voice and save constitutional institutions from the "clutches of the BJP". Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi also shared the minute-long video and said: "Aapke vote ki chori aapke adhikar ki chori, aapki pehchaan ki chori hai."

Tagging the advertisement titled 'booth par vote chori', Congress president Kharge said: "Do not let your rights to vote be snatched away. Ask questions, demand answers this time! Raise your voice against vote chori." "Free constitutional institutions from the clutches of the BJP," he said in his message to the people on X.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also shared the video on X, and said: "The theft of your vote is theft of your rights, theft of your identity." "Save your right to vote, raise your voice against vote theft," she said.

The video made by the Congress depicts a family entering a polling booth with two people telling them that their votes have already been cast by them, and it ends with the two persons casting fake votes, showing a thumbs-up to an officer sitting at the table with 'election chori aayog' display plate on his table.

The Congress on Tuesday had claimed that "vote chori" was a "do-or-die" issue for it, and announced a roadmap to take its allegations to the people through various activities, including taking out 'Loktantra bachao mashaal marches' on August 14 evening.

The Opposition party also claimed that as more "evidence" of "vote chori" was coming to the fore, it seemed that it was not mere theft but "dacoity". The assertion was made after Kharge held a meeting with party general secretaries, in-charges and heads of its frontal organisations. The meeting was attended by the likes of former party chief Rahul Gandhi and general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh, K C Venugopal, Sachin Pilot, Bhanwar Jitendra Singh, Ghulam Ahmad Mir, as well as treasurer Ajay Maken.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Congress leader and AICC in-charge of National Students' Union of India (NSUI) Kanhaiya Kumar had said a "big issue" of "vote chori" has come to the fore.

In a related development, Rahul on Wednesday said he had a unique experience of having tea with some "dead" voters from Bihar and thanked the Election Commission for it. A group of seven voters from Bihar met the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha at his residence and shared their experience of how they were declared "dead" by the EC and their names removed from the electoral rolls.

"There have been many interesting experiences in life, but I never got the chance to have tea with 'dead people'. For this unique experience, thank you Election Commission!" Rahul said in a post in Hindi on X.

He also shared a video of his meeting with the "dead" voters. In it, the Congress MP is heard telling them to move around and see Delhi as the "dead" cannot even be charged tickets. In the video, some of them told Rahul that they came to know that they were "declared dead" by the EC during the special intensive revision (SIR), and were among the 65 lakh voters whose names have been removed from the electoral rolls of poll-bound Bihar.

The group also told the Congress MP that they appeared before the Supreme Court on Wednesday to get their voting rights back. The apex court is hearing petitions against the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar.

In a statement, the party later said that seven voters from Bihar, all very much alive, shared tea with Rahul Gandhi today, even as the Election Commission's SIR list had them as "dead". Ramikbal Ray, Harendra Ray, Lalmuni Devi, Vachiya Devi, Lalwati Devi, Punam Kumari, and Munna Kumar all belong to Tejashwi Yadav's constituency, Raghopur. "They have been removed from the electoral rolls despite having completed the requisite paperwork for the SIR."

The Election Commission has not openly published lists of the people whom it has declared dead, migrated, etc. "Our teams on the ground were able to identify these people only because they managed to informally get EC's internal report in two to three polling booths," the Congress said.