AAP backs Rahul Gandhi's vote theft in Haryana polls charge: Fraud is in BJP's DNA

AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj on Wednesday backed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's allegations of large-scale voter fraud in the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections, alleging that "fraud is in the DNA of BJP governments".

Responding to Gandhi's 'vote chori' (vote theft) charge against the BJP and the Election Commission, Bharadwaj said the ruling party's record in manipulating electoral processes had already been exposed in the Chandigarh mayoral polls earlier this year.

He referred to the 2024 election in which Returning Officer Anil Masih was found guilty of invalidating eight votes that led to BJP candidate Manoj Kumar Sonkar's victory.

The Supreme Court later intervened, physically examined the ballots, and declared AAP's Kuldeep Kumar as the rightful winner, noting that Masih had made a "deliberate effort to deface eight ballots" cast in AAP's favour.

Bharadwaj said the BJP's conduct in Chandigarh was proof of a larger pattern. "Whenever they get an opportunity, they don't think twice before committing fraud," he remarked, adding that "to say they wouldn't manipulate the Election Commission is absurd."

He further alleged that the party was capable of tampering with EVMs and manipulating voter rolls wherever possible.

"To say that they wouldn't manipulate the Election Commission is absurd, of course, they would. They are definitely tampering with EVM machines, certainly manipulating electoral rolls, and wherever they find even the slightest chance, they engage in fraud," he said.

Bharadwaj's remarks came shortly after Rahul Gandhi stepped up his 'vote theft' attack against the BJP and the Election Commission, alleging large-scale voter fraud in the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections.

Armed with what he called "100 per cent proof", Gandhi claimed that 25 lakh fake votes, around 12 per cent of the state's electorate, were cast, alleging "systemic manipulation" to turn a Congress victory into defeat.

"Haryana has 2 crore voters, and 25 lakh of them are fake," Gandhi said at a press conference in Delhi, adding that his team had uncovered 5.21 lakh duplicate voter entries. "One in every eight voters in Haryana is fake."

The Congress leader presented slides showing alleged discrepancies in voter rolls, including an instance where a Brazilian model's photograph reportedly appeared multiple times in the rolls under different names, 'Seema', 'Sweety', and 'Saraswati', allegedly to cast ballots 22 times.

Gandhi accused the BJP of orchestrating a "planned operation" to subvert the democratic process. "All exit polls pointed to a Congress victory in Haryana. For the first time in Haryana's history, postal ballots didn't match the actual votes. This had never happened before. A plan was put in motion to convert Congress' landslide victory into a loss," he said.

Taking a swipe at Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Saini, Gandhi pointed to a post-election video, saying, "Please notice the smile on his face and the 'vyavastha' (arrangement) he is talking about.

This is two days after the election, when everyone was saying Congress was sweeping."

He further alleged that thousands of BJP workers and leaders were registered to vote in both Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. "A BJP leader living at house no.150, the vice chairman of Palwal Zila Parishad, has 66 voters registered at his address. One man has 500 voters registered at his home," Gandhi claimed, naming others such as Dalchand, a BJP leader voting in both states, and Mathura sarpanch Prahlad.

He also pointed to irregularities involving addresses listed as 'House no. Zero', meant for the homeless. "We physically found men marked as House no. Zero who were actually living in their homes. We cross-checked. The chief election commissioner is lying to the people of India. This is not a mistake and not about homeless people," he said.

Asserting that his allegations were backed by verified data, Gandhi said he was "questioning not just the EC, but the democratic process itself".

"Why is the ECI not removing duplicates? If they do, it will make for fair elections. But the EC doesn't want fair polls," he added, alleging that the BJP and the poll body were "in cahoots".

The Leader of Opposition also claimed that the BJP, with the EC's backing, would replicate the same 'sarkar chori' (stolen government) playbook in Bihar, which goes to polls tomorrow.

Referring to the voter roll revision process, he said, "In Bihar, many voters were deleted from the list. But they can be found at their address. They ask why Congress' polling agents don't raise the issue sooner. The reason is that we get the voter list at the very last minute of the election."

- Ends

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