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2025 Indian electoral controversy

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2025 Indian electoral controversy
Part of Democratic backsliding in India
DateAugust 2025 – present
Also known asVote chori
TypePolitics of India
CauseAllegations of electoral irregularities involving the Election Commission of India
MotiveAlleged electoral manipulation benefiting the Bharatiya Janata Party
PerpetratorsAlleged involvement of the Election Commission of India and Bharatiya Janata Party

On 1 August 2025, Rahul Gandhi, the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, stated that his party, the Indian National Congress (INC), had found evidence of electoral fraud during the 2024 Indian general election. On 7 August, he alleged that the electoral rolls prepared by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency in Karnataka consisted of various discrepancies, and accused the commission of "vote chori" (vote theft) and indulging in systematic fraud, in collusion with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The ECI dismissed the claims and urged him to submit them through a signed declaration. On 17 August, Gyanesh Kumar, the chief election commissioner, added that the allegations must be filed under oath within seven days, failing which they would be deemed “baseless and invalid," citing Rule 20(3)(B) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 and no such affidavit was ever filed by Rahul Gandhi or Indian National Congress.[1]

Since then, the opposition parties led by the INC have organised protests and social media campaigns over the ECI's revision of Bihar's electoral rolls. In reaction to the allegation, several members and affiliates of the BJP have defended the commission, while counter accusing the opposition parties of having indulged in electoral fraud themselves.

Background

Democratic backsliding under BJP rule since 2014

Main article: Premiership of Narendra Modi § Democratic backsliding
Further information: Democracy in India § Democratic backsliding, and Democratic backsliding in Asia by country § India
See also: Godi media and Fake news in India

Since the victory of Narendra Modi, leading the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in the 2014 Indian general election, India has witnessed significant democratic backsliding.[2][3]

Laws on sedition, defamation, and counterterrorism have been regularly employed to crack down on critics and dissenting voices, including the detention and arrest of opposition leaders.[4][5] The government has moved to further stifle critics in academia and the press, leading to the rise of an increasingly right-wing and pro-government mainstream media.[6][7] The country's referee institutions, such as the judiciary, investigative agencies, the Election Commission of India (ECI), Lokpal, among others have been weakened through coercion, patronage, and ideological alignment with the BJP, leading to an erosion of public trust in institutions.[8][9]

In 2021, the V-Dem Institute downgraded India from 'flawed democracy' to 'electoral autocracy'.[10] In 2021, Freedom House downgraded India from "free" to "partly free," a title the country has since held for three consecutive years since.[11][12][13]

Change in the appointment process of election commissioners

Election commissioners are appointed by the president of India on the recommendation of a three-member Selection Committee. In March 2023, the Supreme Court, in Anoop Baranwal v. Union of India case, directed that, until Parliament enacted a law on the subject, appointments would be made on the advice of a committee comprising the prime minister, the chief justice of India, and the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha (or the leader of the largest opposition party where no Leader of the Opposition was recognised).[14] The Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, enacted later that year, replaced the chief justice with a Union Cabinet minister nominated by the prime minister and established a separate Search Committee headed by the Union Minister of Law and Justice to prepare a panel of candidates.[15] Critics have argued that the composition of the Selection Committee gives the government greater influence over appointments.[16]

The constitutionality of the 2023 Act was challenged before the Supreme Court. In May 2026, a two-judge bench began hearing petitions challenging the law, with the petitioners arguing that the exclusion of the Chief Justice weakened safeguards for the Election Commission's independence.[17] On 23 September 2026, the bench delivered a split verdict on whether the challenges should be referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench: Justice Dipankar Datta declined the request for reference, while Justice S. C. Sharma favoured referring the matter to a larger bench.[18]

Earlier allegations

Before the 2025 controversy, the opposition Indian National Congress (INC; commonly known as the Congress) had alleged electoral irregularities in the 2023 Madhya Pradesh Assembly election and the 2024 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election. On 21 July 2025, Rahul Gandhi alleged that the Madhya Pradesh election had been manipulated and claimed that the Maharashtra election had been "stolen", while also accusing the Election Commission of India of assisting the Bharatiya Janata Party.[19]

Allegations

On 1 August 2025, Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, alleged electoral fraud in the 2024 Indian general election, describing the evidence he said he had as an "atom bomb".[20] On 6 August, opposition parties sought a parliamentary discussion on the Election Commission of India's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, while Arjun Ram Meghwal, the Minister of Law and Justice, called on Gandhi to provide evidence for his allegations and said that the functioning of the Election Commission could not be debated in Parliament.[21]

On 7 August, Gandhi alleged that more than 100,000 votes in the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency of Karnataka had been affected by duplicate voters, invalid addresses and other irregularities, and accused the Election Commission of facilitating electoral manipulation during the 2024 Lok Sabha election.[22] The Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer asked Gandhi to submit a signed declaration and provide the names of the electors concerned so that the allegations could be investigated.[23]

On 5 November 2025, Gandhi alleged electoral fraud in the 2024 Haryana Legislative Assembly election, claiming that about 2.5 million voter entries were fraudulent or duplicated. He cited, among other examples, a photograph of a Brazilian model that he alleged appeared 22 times under different names across voter lists.[24] The Election Commission rejected the allegations as unfounded and questioned why Congress's booth-level agents had not raised objections during the electoral-roll revision process.[25]

Response from the ECI

The election commission dismissed the allegations as "baseless," and reverted that the Congress did not file any appeal or concern regarding the electoral rolls prior to the elections. It urged Rahul Gandhi to submit a written declaration with the allegations as per the rule 20(3)(B) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.[26] The commission also reverted to the allegation of a particular voter Shakuni Rani voting twice, and said that a preliminary enquiry conducted by the office confirmed that she only voted once.[27] It further stated that the request for a machine readable voter list was rejected by the Supreme Court in 2019, and that reviewing the CCTV footage for the 100,000 voting booths is "implausible," claiming that the footage is retained only if any losing candidate files an election petition to challenge the election in the concerned High Court within 45 days of the election.[26]

The chief electoral officers of Maharashtra and Haryana issued notices to Rahul Gandhi for submitting a formal declaration under 10 days for his alleged accusation of inclusion and exclusion of non-eligible and eligible voters by the election commission in the respective states.[28] On 17 August, chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar responded to the claims of Rahul Gandhi stating that if the claims are not made under a declaration under oath within seven days, it would be considered as "baseless and invalid." He further stated that if Rahul Gandhi is not willing to submit a signed affidavit, he should then "apologise for his allegations."[29]

Protests and reactions

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar prompted protests from opposition parties, who alleged that it could lead to the exclusion of eligible voters. On 11 August 2025, opposition leaders and supporters, including Rahul Gandhi, marched towards the Election Commission of India's office in New Delhi and were detained by police.[30] Protests were also held in West Bengal.[31] The opposition cited cases such as that of Minta Devi, whose age was incorrectly recorded as 124 in the electoral roll; the district administration attributed the discrepancy to a clerical error.[32] The opposition also alleged that some living voters had been incorrectly recorded as deceased, while the Election Commission maintained that the revision included procedures for identifying and correcting errors.[33]

See also

References

  1. ^ "'Taken Constitution's oath': Rahul Gandhi responds as spat with Election Commission over 'vote theft' intensifies". Hindustan Times. 8 August 2025. Retrieved 1 December 2025.
  2. ^ Brunkert, Lennart; Kruse, Stefan; Welzel, Christian (3 April 2019). "A tale of culture-bound regime evolution: the centennial democratic trend and its recent reversal". Democratization. 26 (3): 422–443. doi:10.1080/13510347.2018.1542430. ISSN 1351-0347. S2CID 148625260. Archived from the original on 10 October 2021. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  3. ^ Khaitan, Tarunabh (26 May 2020). "Killing a Constitution with a Thousand Cuts: Executive Aggrandizement and Party-state Fusion in India". Law & Ethics of Human Rights. 14 (1): 49–95. doi:10.1515/lehr-2020-2009. hdl:11343/241852. ISSN 2194-6531. S2CID 221083830.
  4. ^ Pillai, Shreeya and Lindberg, Staffan I. (2021) "Democracy Broken Down: India" in Democracy Report 2021: Autocratization Turns Viral pp.20–21. V-Dem Institute
  5. ^ "The Modi decade and how it changed India: India's endangered democracy and freedom". SOAS University of London. 6 September 2023.
  6. ^ "Democratic Backsliding in India, the World's Largest Democracy". V-Dem Institute. 24 February 2020. Archived from the original on 27 February 2021. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
  7. ^ Ismat, Ara (9 December 2020). "At Farmers' Protest, Field Reporters of 'Godi Media' Channels Face the Heat". The Wire. Archived from the original on 27 November 2022.
  8. ^ Vaishnav, Milan (15 May 2025). "Backsliding in India?". Global Challenges to Democracy. Cambridge University Press: 35–53. doi:10.1017/9781009602570.003. ISBN 978-1-009-60257-0.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link)
  9. ^ Price, Gareth (7 April 2022). "Democracy in India". Chatham House.
  10. ^ Biswas, Soutik (16 March 2021). "'Electoral autocracy': The downgrading of India's democracy". BBC.
  11. ^ "India is now only 'partly free', says global report". BBC. 3 March 2021. Archived from the original on 3 March 2021. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  12. ^ Krishnankutty, Pia (13 March 2023). "Freedom 'losing ground' — India ranked 'partly free' for 3rd year by US non-profit Freedom House". ThePrint.
  13. ^ "India rated 'partially free' in Freedom House report for third straight year". Scroll.in. 11 March 2023.
  14. ^ "Wasn't judgment on appointing CEC/ECs meant for short period until a law was in place, asks Supreme Court". The Indian Express. 7 May 2026. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  15. ^ "The Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023" (PDF). India Code. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  16. ^ "'Tyranny of the elected': Why Supreme Court has flagged Election Commission appointment procedure". The Indian Express. 9 May 2026. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  17. ^ "Supreme Court questions delay in CEC appointment law, calls it 'tyranny of the elected'". The Indian Express. 8 May 2026. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  18. ^ "Supreme Court gives split verdict on sending petition over poll body chief's appointment to Constitution Bench". The Indian Express. 23 September 2026. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  19. ^ Malpani, Mehul (21 July 2025). "'Madhya Pradesh elections could be stolen, just as in Maharashtra': Rahul Gandhi". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  20. ^ "Rahul Gandhi says what we have found is an 'atom bomb'; there's 100% proof EC is doing 'vote chori' for BJP". The Hindu. 1 August 2025. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  21. ^ "Opposition pulls out former Rajya Sabha Chairman Dhankhar's remarks to counter government over SIR debate". The Hindu. 6 August 2025. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  22. ^ "Rahul accuses EC, BJP of poll fraud: '1,00,250 votes stolen' in a Karnataka seat". The Indian Express. 7 August 2025. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  23. ^ "Bengaluru 'vote chori' allegation: Submit declaration on claim, give names of electors, EC to Rahul Gandhi". The Indian Express. 7 August 2025. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  24. ^ "Rahul Gandhi press conference LIVE updates: EC, BJP hit back at LoP; 'why were objections not raised', asks poll official". The Indian Express. 5 November 2025. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  25. ^ "'Why no Congress agents raised objection?' Election Commission questions Rahul Gandhi's 'H files'; call allegations unfounded". The Times of India. 5 November 2025. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  26. ^ a b "'Sign declaration or apologise': EC shreds Rahul Gandhi's '5 questions'". The Hindustan Times. 8 August 2025. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  27. ^ "Poll Body Fact-Checks Yet Another Voter Fraud Claim By Rahul Gandhi". NDTV. 10 August 2025. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
  28. ^ "CEOs of Maharashtra, Haryana issue fresh letter to Rahul Gandhi, give him 10 days to prove 'voter fraud' claims". The Times of India. 11 August 2025. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 14 August 2025.
  29. ^ "Submit affidavit or apologise to the nation: CEC Gyanesh Kumar to Rahul Gandhi over his 'voter theft' allegations". The Economic Times. 17 August 2025. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  30. ^ "Rahul Gandhi among opposition leaders detained during protest against India election panel". Reuters. 11 August 2025. Retrieved 14 August 2025.
  31. ^ "Bengal Congress activists hold protest outside Raj Bhavan". Press Trust of India. 14 August 2025. Retrieved 14 August 2025.
  32. ^ "Minta Devi, 124 not out – error in Bihar woman's age on voter list gives ammo to Opposition". The Indian Express. 13 August 2025. Retrieved 14 August 2025.
  33. ^ "Rahul Gandhi has tea with 'dead' voters from Bihar, thanks ECI for experience". The Hindu. 13 August 2025. Retrieved 13 August 2025.
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