As the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, joined by the entire opposition, has intensified his usual attacks on the Election Commission of India (ECI) by levelling unfounded allegations of election rigging, he has, unsurprisingly, found support from foreign media. Several foreign media outlets, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Al Jazeera, published misleading pieces that promoted Gandhi’s baseless allegations against the ECI.
INDI Alliance leaders created a ruckus outside the Parliament building on Monday (11th August) by starting a protest march from the Parliament to the ECI headquarters. However, several opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi, were briefly detained by the Delhi Police. The Police said that the INDI Alliance did not obtain permission before conducting the protest march. As a result, a scuffle broke out between the opposition leaders and the police personnel, who were trying to control the situation. Visuals from the protest march showed opposition leaders fighting with police personnel, who were trying to maintain law and order. Some leaders, like TMC MP Mahua Moitra and Samajwadi Party Supremo, Akhilesh Yadav, climbed over the police barricades.
Reporting about the protest march taken out by the INDI Alliance against the ECI on Monday, The New York Times wrote in their headline, “Indian Lawmakers detained for Protesting Election Irregularities”, in an attempt to lend credence to the opposition’s allegations of election rigging.
Similarly, the Washington Post slyly termed the routine Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise conducted by the ECI in Bihar as a “controversial electoral roll revision”.
Al Jazeera also highlighted the allegations of the INDI Alliance leaders in their coverage of the protest.
Joining the chorus, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation also described the electoral roll revision in Bihar as “controversial”
On August 7, 2025, Rahul Gandhi held a press conference in Delhi, wherein he accused the ECI of colluding with the BJP. Blaming the election body and the ruling BJP for the Congress Party’s election defeat, Gandhi alleged that the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were “choreographed”.
Fake voters in Rahul Gandhi’s own constituency
To support his allegations, Gandhi presented lengthy documents, which he claimed were the electoral roll of Karnataka. He claimed that his party conducted an “internal survey” on polling in the Mahadevapura Assembly in Karnataka, and alleged “vote chori” (vote theft) of 100,250 votes. According to Gandhi, since Congress won only 9 seats in Karnataka instead of the expected 16 seats, it could only have been possible because of vote theft. He alleged his party analysed several such unexpected losses and found out that there was vote chori as well. Gandhi even threatened the ECI officials with “consequences” after his party comes to power, despite such massive election rigging.
Notably, in his press conference, Gandhi accused the Election Commission of creating fake voters, citing anomalies such as “House Number 0” entries in voter lists. But some media reports later revealed that the same pattern existed in Rahul Gandhi’s own constituency, Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh. The voter list in Rae Bareli also had a large number of entries with “House Number 0” and even clusters of dozens of voters registered at the same address.
Rahul Gandhi opposes SIR, which is an excercise to update voter list
The entire INDI Alliance, including the Congress Party, vehemently opposed the electoral roll revision in Bihar and even made a failed attempt to stop the revision by approaching the Supreme Court. While refusing to stop the electoral revision, the Supreme Court said that an electoral revision is a routine exercise, which the Election Commission is empowered to conduct.
Interestingly, the Election Commission has been asking Rahul Gandhi to submit his allegations on oath under a declaration, so that an investigation can be initiated. However, Gandhi evaded the declaration, claiming that as a politician, his words should be taken as an oath. On one hand, Rahul Gandhi alleges that there are fake and duplicate voters added in the electoral rolls, and on the other hand, he opposes an electoral roll revision, which is conducted to update voter lists by eliminating fake or ineligible voters. The SIR conducted by the ECI in Bihar revealed major discrepancies in the voter list. The commission found that around 18 lakh enrolled voters were deceased, 26 lakh shifted, and 7 lakh names were duplicates.
