Patna (Bihar) [India], November 6 : Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was attempting to "steal" the Bihar elections, calling vote theft "an attack on the Constitution."
Hours before the first phase of the Bihar polls, Gandhi had alleged "voter fraud" in the 2024 Haryana assembly elections, claiming that one in eight voters in Haryana were fake.
In a video shared on Facebook, the Congress leader said, "Today, as you must have seen in the press conference, I spoke about the truth of the BJP, the truth about vote theft. They stole the elections in Haryana. They stole Maharashtra's. Earlier, they stole votes in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh elections. And now, they are trying their best to steal Bihar's election."
He described the alleged manipulation of votes as a direct assault on the Indian Constitution and the legacy of the country's founding leaders.
"In the press conference, I told you a story from Bihar -- the story of one family, one village. But what happened to them has happened to millions of people in Bihar. Votes have been cut, people's votes have been snatched away. Vote theft is an attack on the Constitution -- on the Constitution of Dr. Ambedkar, on the Constitution of Mahatma Gandhi," he said.
He further appealed to Bihar's citizens, especially the Gen Z, to vote in large numbers to protect democracy and ensure fair representation.
The leader of Opposition said, "And we all must stop this vote theft. It is the responsibility of the people of Bihar, especially the Gen Z, to come out in large numbers and vote. I give you my guarantee that our alliance will form a government for the poor, the farmers, the laborers, for every community -- the extremely backward, the backward, the Mahadalits, the Dalits, the minorities, and the poor among the general category. In this government, every Bihari's voice will be heard."
The leader of Opposition on Wednesday while addressing a press conference 'H files', said, "...We have crystal clear proof that 25 lakh voters (in Haryana) are fake, that they either don't exist or they are duplicate or are designed in a way for anybody to vote...1 in 8 voters in Haryana are fake, that's 12.5%..."
"We have the word 'H' Files and this is about how an entire state has been stolen...We suspected that this was not happening in individual constituencies, but rather at the state and national levels. We received numerous complaints in Haryana from our candidates, stating that something was not working correctly. Their predictions all went upside down. We had experienced this in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra but we decided to zoom into Haryana and go into details about what had happened there," he said.
The Congress claimed that a plan was set in motion to turn a predicted Congress win into a loss and also urged young voters to pay attention, citing claims backed by strong evidence.
"All (exit) polls pointed to a Congress victory (in Haryana)...The other thing that was surprising to us was that, for the first time in Haryana's electoral history, postal votes differed from the actual voting...This had never happened in Haryana before. So, we thought, 'Let's go into the details.' When I first saw this information, I struggled to believe it. I was in shock...I told the team to cross-check multiple times," he said.
"...I want the young people, GenZ of India to understand this clearly because this is about your future...I am questioning the EC and the democratic process in India, so I am doing it with 100% proof. We are pretty sure that a plan was put in motion to convert Congress' landslide victory into a loss...Please note the smile on his face (CM Nayab Saini) and notice the 'vyavastha' that he is talking about. This is 2 days after election when everybody is saying that the Congress is sweeping the elections," he said.
Gandhi claimed that a woman appeared to have voted 22 times across different booths using multiple names.
He said the image linked to her was a stock photograph of a Brazilian model and that similar cases could involve up to 25 lakh records in the state.
"...Congress lost the election by 22,000 votes...Who is this lady?... She votes 22 times in Haryana, in 10 different booths in Haryana. She has multiple names...That means this is a centralised operation...The lady is a Brazilian model. That's a stock photograph and she is one of 25 lakh such records in Haryana," he said.