In a sharp rebuttal to Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s explosive allegations of electoral fraud in the 2024 Haryana Assembly polls, sources in the Election Commission of India (ECI) told India TV that his claims were “unfounded and misleading.”

Rahul Gandhi had earlier alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “stole” the Haryana mandate by tampering with the voters’ list. He claimed that nearly 25 lakh fake entries were created to manipulate the results, calling it a “theft of democracy” and accusing the Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners of being “in partnership” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Gandhi further termed the alleged conspiracy as ‘Operation Sarkar Chori’, asserting that it converted a “landslide Congress victory into defeat.”

However, Election Commission sources, speaking exclusively to India TV, dismissed these allegations, saying there were no irregularities in the electoral rolls. “There have been zero appeals against electoral rolls in the state,” an EC official said.

According to India TV, EC sources clarified that only 22 election petitions are currently pending in the High Court out of 90 Assembly constituencies, which is consistent with normal electoral trends. They questioned the Congress party’s preparedness and vigilance during polling. “What were the polling agents of INC doing inside the polling stations? They are supposed to object if a voter’s identity is in doubt or if someone votes twice,” one official stated.

The EC further hit back at Gandhi’s stance, asking, “Is Rahul Gandhi supporting the Systematic Identification and Removal (SIR) process, which eliminates duplicate, dead, and shifted voters, or is he opposing it?”

Officials also highlighted that Congress Booth Level Agents (BLAs) did not raise any objections during the revision of electoral rolls. “Why were no claims or objections filed by Congress’ BLAs during the revision to prevent multiple entries? Why were no appeals filed by the party during this process?” the sources asked.

Responding to another of Gandhi’s claims regarding irregular house numbering, EC sources explained that “house number zero” is assigned by the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in areas where local municipalities or panchayats have not allotted house numbers.