‘Deplorable’: Election Commission dismisses Rahul Gandhi's ‘vote chori’ for BJP allegations

Election Commission of India responded to Rahul Gandhi's ‘wild’ allegations about ‘vote chori’, calling it ‘deplorable’. The poll panel said it is very ‘strange’ that the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha is has now even started threatening the poll panel and its staff

"⁠ECI ignores all such irresponsible statements and asks all its staff to continue working impartially and transparently," the poll panel said in a statement shared by news agency ANI.

⁠"It is very strange that he is making wild allegations and has now even started threatening EC and its staff. Deplorable," the poll panel said.

On 2 August, Rahul Gandhi alleged that the Election Commission is indulging in ‘vote chori’ for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and claimed that his party has “open and shut” evidence for it.

The Rae Bareli Member of Parliament (MP) likened his party's evidence of alleged poll irregularities to an ‘atom bomb’ and said that when it explodes, the Election Commission will have no place to hide in the country.

The Election Commission in response claimed that Rahul Gandhi had not been responding to its email and letter sent June 2025. The poll panel also said that Rahul Gandhi never sent any letter to it on any issue, whatsoever.

Gandhi said his party had suspicions of poll irregularities in the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls in 2023, then in the Lok Sabha polls, and this went further in Maharashtra.

“We believe that vote theft has happened at the state level (in Maharashtra). Voter revision had happened, and a crore voters were added. Then we went into detail, seeing that the EC is not helping, and decided to dig deep into this,” he said.

Hitting back at Gandhi for his "vote chori" remarks targeting the Election Commission, Rijiju said the Congress leader was acting in a "childish" manner by running a campaign against the poll authority after losing a series of elections.

"When they (Congress) win elections, everything is hunky dory. But, when they lose elections, the Election Commission is to blame. This is a conspiracy to weaken democracy," Rijiju, the parliamentary affairs minister, said.

The Monsoon session of Parliament, which began on 21 July, has witnessed repeated disruptions following the opposition's protests on the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of the elections scheduled later this year.

Rijiju accused Gandhi of running a malicious campaign against constitutional bodies and termed it a "dangerous behaviour and approach".

"People have started saying that Rahul Gandhi is playing a dirty game to tarnish the image of the country," he said.

(With PTI inputs)