ChandigarhAug 12, 2025 08:21 IST
First published on: Aug 12, 2025 at 08:21 IST
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Following the Haryana Chief Electoral Officer (CEO)’s move to ask for a formal declaration under oath from Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi over his allegations of “vote theft” in the Lok Sabha elections as well as Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly polls in 2024, a united Haryana Congress has come out in Gandhi’s support.
Haryana Congress leaders believe that the party would have won had the Assembly polls been conducted through ballot papers. “We were leading in 74 of the 90 seats when postal ballots were being counted. In the past five Assembly polls, the party leading after counting of postal ballots has gone on to win the polls in Haryana but this time, the exact opposite happened,” senior Congress leader and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said.
Eventually, proving exit polls wrong, the BJP registered its best-ever performance in the Haryana polls, securing a historic third consecutive term by winning 48 of 90 seats and 39.9% of the votes while the Congress finished runner-up with 37 seats with a 39.1% vote share.
Claiming that the EC is trying to “divert the attention from the real issue”, Hooda said that the poll body was sending notices to Gandhi when it should be answering how many “fake voters” were added to the electoral rolls. “Everyone saw how the EC repeatedly changed voter turnout numbers repeatedly for three consecutive days after the Haryana elections when the final turnout number should have come by late evening on voting day,” he alleged.
Accusing the EC and the BJP of “vote chori” in various polls, Gandhi in a press conference on August 7 had also claimed that the Congress lost the Haryana elections by just over 22,000 votes.
Gandhi’s claims seem to have galvanised the Congress in Haryana, months after its Assembly poll debacle, and united the state party leadership, which had appeared divided over a number of issues in the recent past.
Responding to the Haryana CEO’s notice, senior Congress leader from the state, Randeep Singh Surjewala – seen as a rival of Hooda – said, “The notices will not dilute the unpardonable sin it (EC) is committing.”
Another Congress leader known as Hooda’s key rival, former Union minister Kumari Selja, also echoed the former CM’s views. “India’s democracy rests on transparency, fairness and the people’s trust. In keeping with these principles, Gandhi has brought the serious issue of vote theft before the country. This is not imagination but a fact which has emerged after six months of intensive investigation of official documents released by the EC itself,” she said.
Dismissing the Congress’s allegations, Haryana BJP chief Mohan Lal Badoli said the EC’s exercise is aimed at ensuring a transparent poll process so that only eligible people have voting rights at one location. “Congress leaders know they will not get votes in the future too. They do not even trust their own leaders. People are laughing at their claims,” he added.