By Prachi Mishra
On October 31, 2023, the Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi, made a serious accusation against the Haryana government about voter registration and said that a significant number of individuals in the electoral list were fictitious. He claimed that names and photographs of the same people were showing up in different places and which he referred to as a “hydrogen bomb” of proof. One of the instances pointed out was that of a Brazilian model’s image, which he claimed had been used for 22 different voter identities.
Gandhi went on to say about the electoral roll data analysis that 25.41 lakhs entries in the state were of doubtful nature. If this is the case, then it would mean that roughly one out of eight voters or around 12.5 percent of the total voters during the assembly elections last October could be called non-legitimate. Gandhi insisted that such a huge scale of repetition or forgery would create a situation where the election process would lose its fairness and therefore election results would not reflect the actual will of the people.
He further elaborated that democracy is based on free and fair elections and considered the tampering of the voter list as a direct affront to the people’s verdict. He further intimated that the potential fraud could have served as the turning point that changed the election result in that part of the region.
The BJP, which came out as the winner in the election, denied the accusations and termed these as mere political moves and without any grounds. As said by the party members, the electoral rolls could be cross-checked through various ways and they were made available for public display till final approval was granted.
So far, the Election Commission has not come out with a category-definitive answer to the new allegations. The issue, according to political analysts, will be further aired in Parliament and in the forthcoming state-level political campaigns, amid persistent discussions on electoral integrity, headed toward likely increased heat ahead of the next elections round.