‘H-Files’: Rahul Gandhi alleges voter manipulation in Haryana; lists 10 points

A day before the first phase of the Bihar assembly elections, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused the Election Commission and the BJP of orchestrating what he called a “state-level vote theft” in Haryana. Addressing a press conference in Delhi, Gandhi claimed his party has compiled “100% proof” to show that nearly 25 lakh votes in the Haryana assembly elections were “duplicate, invalid or manipulated”.

“We are calling this the ‘H-Files’. This is about how an entire state has been stolen,” Gandhi said, alleging that the discrepancies were not isolated to specific constituencies but part of a larger pattern.

Key allegations raised by Rahul Gandhi:

• 25 lakh votes manipulated: Gandhi claimed the Congress audit found around 25 lakh invalid or duplicated votes in the Haryana rolls under categories like non-existent addresses, duplicate voters and bulk entries.
• Postal ballots do not match actual votes: He alleged that, “for the first time in Haryana’s history”, postal vote counts differed significantly from votes recorded at polling stations.
• A Brazilian woman allegedly voted 22 times: Gandhi cited a case where a “Brazilian model” allegedly voted multiple times under different names at various booths. “She is Seema, Sweety, Saraswati, Rashmi, Vimla… but actually a Brazilian model,” he said.
• EC not using its duplicate-detection software: Gandhi claimed that the Election Commission has software to identify duplicate voters but “refused to run it,” alleging this was done to benefit the BJP.
• Cross-border duplicate voting: He alleged thousands of BJP workers voted in both Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, calling it evidence of a “planned operation”.
• House Number ‘0’ entries misleading: He rejected the EC’s justification that voters listed under “house number zero” were homeless. “On ground verification showed they were living in their homes. The CEC is lying,” he said.
• Video of CM Nayab Singh Saini cited: Gandhi played a video of the Haryana CM saying ahead of counting that the BJP “has a system in place,” which he suggested implied manipulation.
• 3.5 lakh names deleted: He said more than 3.5 lakh voters were removed from the rolls, and played a clip of a man from Malikpur who claimed his family’s names were deleted.
• Complaints came from across constituencies: Gandhi said Congress candidates reported outcomes sharply deviating from expected booth trends, prompting the audit.
• Vote theft alleged to be “national-level” pattern: He linked the Haryana findings to earlier complaints in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, calling it a “national-level strategy” to influence elections.

The Congress leader also brought voters from Bihar to the press event, who claimed their names had recently been removed from the electoral rolls.(With inputs from TOI)