Claiming that the 2024 Assembly elections in Haryana had been “stolen”, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi cited examples, among them a house in Palwal district’s Hodal with 66 voters and another with 501. He also said that in Sonipat district’s Rai, a stock photograph of a Brazilian national was used to cast votes 22 times at 10 booths. “She has got multiple names — Seema, Sweety, Saraswati, Rashmi, Vimla,” he said.
The Indian Express visited both places and found that in Hodal, the two addresses are, in fact, large plots where multiple homes exist and multiple families reside, many of whom said they had voted in the Assembly elections. And in Rai, The Indian Express tracked down four of the women whose photographs on the voter roll were of the Brazilian national. All of them had voted without incident, and all were unaware of the issue until Gandhi raised it Wednesday.
In Hodal
“In Hodal Assembly, we found 66 voters registered in a house belonging to a BJP zila parishad vice-chairperson, and 501 voters in a house which could not be found,” Gandhi told the press.
The Indian Express visited house number 150 in Hodal’s Gudhrana village and found that it belongs to BJP zila parishad vice-chairperson Umesh Gudhrana (40), and the voters Gandhi referred to are his extended family members.
Sitting in the open, smoking a hookah, Gudhrana’s uncle, Rajpal Gudhrana (60), and his brothers said the voters Gandhi mentioned during the press conference are all relatives who live on the same plot of land.
“My father, along with his three brothers, shifted to Gudhrana from the nearby Siha village around 80 years ago, and all of them got married and started their families. We had 10 acres of land, where we used to stay on five acres and do farming on the rest. This is the oldest pucca house, built in 1986 – House Number 150,” Rajpal said, adding that as the family grew, individual houses were built to accommodate the increasing members on the five acres of land. All are identified with the same house number, he said.
Umesh said, “Four generations of our family live together. There is no question of vote theft. My voter ID was made in 2009, and whoever from my family gets a voter ID made, the BLO writes the address as House Number 150 only,” he said.
The Indian Express also visited House Number 265, where Gandhi alleged 501 voters were registered.
Here, Kishni (72), one of the voters registered at the address, said her family has eight members. Her husband, Ram Sorout, said his great-grandfather had 25-30 acres of land in the village, which the family divided into plots and gradually sold off.
According to Sorout’s son, Pawan (26), a total of 200 houses and three private schools are currently located on this piece of land, and all voters have 265 as their registered house number.
“Before 1980, the whole piece of land was used for farming with little residential area, but as our family increased, many houses were built while many acres were sold,” he said, adding that six generations of his family live in the vicinity along with people who bought the land.
One such voter who appears on the voter list with the same house number, and is not associated with the Sorout family, is Shyamwati Singh (46). Living with her husband and two children, she said the family bought the piece of land in 2013, and has since been voting in elections with this address.
Congress’s Udai Bhan lost to BJP’s Harinder Singh by 2,595 votes in the Assembly polls here.
In Rai
The Indian Express visited the homes of three women whose photographs on the voter roll, according to Gandhi, is that of a Brazilian national. A fourth woman spoke over the phone. In all instances, the women or the families said they had voted without incident.
Sweety, a homemaker, is among the women. “I did not have any issues voting this time; I used my 2012 voter card and the slip they issued,” she said.
About a hundred metres away is the home of Manjeet, 24, another such woman. Her family said she too voted as usual.
At Sector 35 resides another woman, Darshana Joon (54), in the list of 22. Her daughter, Harsha (24), showed a photograph of Joon’ 2019 voter ID with her photograph. “We all voted recently, and I don’t recall any issue. Here, the photo is clearly wrong,” Harsha said when shown the voter roll.
Unlike the three women, Pinki, a resident of Machhraula village, did have an issue with her voter ID – but it had nothing to do with a Brazilian national. Pinki said she got enrolled at the current address once she moved there from Delhi after getting married in 2016. She said the voter ID card that she received did have the wrong photograph – but of another village resident.
“I gave the card back to the ASHA worker (BLO) and asked for the right photo to be put, but I am yet to get a new EPIC card. I have voted twice using the voters’ slip and my Aadhaar card,” she said.
The BLO of the booth, Babita, said she was appointed to the role a few months ago and was not aware of the issue. The previous BLO, an ASHA worker, Sushila, says she was not aware of how the wrong photo – that of the Brazilian national – got on the rolls.
The Congress candidate from the Rai Assembly seat was Jai Bhagwan Antil. He lost by a margin of 4,673 votes. Speaking with The Indian Express, he claimed, “The election seemed to be a clear one (for my victory) but then… they (the BJP) won with fake votes.”