In his latest high-voltage media event, Rahul Gandhi pitched what he dubbed the “H-Files” — a dramatic dossier alleging that the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections were “stolen” via mass vote-fraud. But beneath the theatrics lies a cascade of inconsistencies, mis-representations and evidentiary gaps. Here are the key problems — and what they reveal about Rahul Gandhi’s strategy.
1. The Big Claim: 25 Lakh Fake Votes in Haryana
Raghul Gandhi claimed that roughly 12.5% of Haryana’s 2 crore voters — some 25 lakh entries — were fake: including 5.21 lakh duplicate voters, 93,174 invalid addresses, and 19.26 lakh “bulk voters”. He further alleged a “stock photo” of a Brazilian model was being used for 22 votes across 10 booths.
But the core problem: the Election Commission of India (ECI) and officials have dismissed many of these figures as baseless. For instance, the Haryana CEO’s fact-list shows only 4.16 lakh objections during roll revision — far from the 25 lakh alleged.
Without transparent data, sweeping claims like these look more like politically timed drama than forensic findings.
2. The House-with-501-Voters and Address “Duplicates”
Rahul Gandhi also spotlighted two specific addresses in the Hodal area of Palwal district: one with 66 voters (allegedly in a BJP functionary’s house), another with 501. His narrative: clear evidence of mass “vote chori”.
Reality checks tell a different story: at the “66 voters” address, the residents are all part of one extended family (four generations) living on one plot, multiple houses under one house-number. The “501 voters” address is similarly a large ancestral parcel subdivided into many houses — and one non-family resident (not affiliated with the Sorout family) does indeed have the same “house number 265”. In short: multiple voters at one address ≠ illicit fake voters.
True, large households and confusing address systems can create odd-looking numbers. But the jump from oddity to “stolen election” is political leap-frogging, not reasoned analysis.
3. The “Brazilian Model Votes 22 Times” Spectacle
Arguably the most sensational figure: Rahul Gandhi displayed a photo of what he claimed was a Brazilian model whose image appeared under multiple names and booths in Haryana — supposedly proof of systematic vote-fraud.
But scrutiny reveals: the photo was downloaded from a stock-image platform; the woman in question denies any involvement in Indian politics. Meanwhile, the named individuals in the voter-list say they voted, received their IAM cards, and attribute the mismatch to administrative error rather than fraud.
In short: a flashy image + sensational claim = compelling media moment. But as “evidence” of mass electoral theft? That’s unproven, if not misleading.
4. No Formal Objections, No Legal Cases?
If millions of fake voters existed, one would expect a slew of objections, appeals, or legal petitions. Yet official records show: zero formal appeals filed by the Congress during the roll-revision; only 23 election petitions for the entire state’s 2024 polls.
mint. One senior EC official put it bluntly: “Why were no claims and objections raised by INC’s BLAs [booth-level agents] during revision?”
mint
If you’re going to allege a stolen election, you need more than dramatic slides — you need to pick your process tools also.
5. Selective Seats, Selective Anger
Notice that the charges—the “66 voters house”, the “Brazilian model” photo, the “house number 0”—all come from seats lost by Congress in Haryana.
Meanwhile, no similar claims have been made for seats Congress won. That suggests strategic cherry-picking rather than a comprehensive audit of the state’s electoral integrity.
In politics, that is not a show of forensic discovery—it’s a replay of “we lost because the system stole it”. And that narrative turns accountability on its head: the party that lost points to external theft rather than internal failure.
6. Innovation vs. Gimmick: What’s the Gain?
It’s time to be honest about what Rahul Gandhi is doing:
He is innovating theatrics (stock-photo, “H-Files”, “hydrogen bomb” narrative) — to stretch media cycles.
He is sidestepping the harder work: building evidence, filing petitions, doing local audits.
He is shifting focus from Congress’s electoral weaknesses (ticket-distribution, ground-organisation, messaging) to blaming external forces.
In other words: If your strategy is “the system stole us”, you don’t need to fix your ground game—to fix your narrative you need big headlines. That’s what we’re seeing.
7. Democracy Loses When Doubt Replaces Evidence
There are real concerns about voter-list cleanliness in India. We know the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing’s deduplication software was allegedly shelved in 2022 because mass-scale clean-up was tough.
And yes, there are cases of administrative errors, shared addresses, rental homes, handwritten house-numbers, etc.
But that is very different from an orchestrated theft of a state election. By conflating local glitches with grand theft, Rahul Gandhi is doing two damaging things: one, he undermines trust in our democratic process; and two, he absolves his own party of its role in electoral failures.
In Conclusion
Rahul Gandhi’s “Vote Chori” narrative in Haryana is high on spectacle, low on conviction. The claims may appeal to political core bases, but from a serious democratic-analysis standpoint they fall short: weak evidentiary base, source-selective cases, no formal legal raise.
In democracies, losing is not always external theft. Sometimes it’s internal weakness. The Congress party would serve itself—and the country—better by re-building ground-level strength, improving data-systems, demanding transparency where needed, rather than building sky-high allegations pending evidence.
Gandhi’s “Vote Chori” campaign may grab headlines. But if it lacks foundation, it risks leaving democracy itself the ultimate casualty.