On Friday (26th September), the Election Commission of India debunked the ‘vote chori’ conspiracy theory peddled by Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera.
He had retweeted a dubious article by the leftist propaganda portal Scroll, which alleged ‘fraud’ during the bye-poll in Kundarki Vidhan Sabha constituency in 2024.
For the unversed, BJP candidate Ramveer Singh defeated the Samajwadi Party’s Mohammad Rizwan by 1,44,791 votes.
In a tweet, Pawan Khera claimed, “Another blot on the ECI, this time from UP. BJP’s sweep of the Kundarki assembly seat in the 2024 bye-poll – a constituency long considered an SP bastion – baffled many. But the mystery is over: that 1.4 lakh margin wasn’t a miracle, it was Vote Chori.”
An Election Petition has been filed in Hon’ble Allahabad High Court by Mr Mohammad Rizwan, the candidate of Samajwadi Party in the bye-election held in November 2024 in 29-Kundarki Assembly Constituency. The matter is already sub-judice and hence no comments are being made… https://t.co/ZlvpkRcodC
— CEO Uttar Pradesh (@ceoup) September 26, 2025
The Election Commission pointed out that the matter is currently sub-judice and hence refrained from delving specifically into the details of the particular Kundarki Vidhan Sabha constituency bye-election.
The nodal election body, however, emphasised that it was not unusual for results to vary drastically in 2 consecutive elections in the same constituency. It cited the example of the Malegaon Central Vidhan Sabha constituency.
“In 114-Malegaon Central AC of Maharashtra, the INC candidate received only 3.13% of the votes polled in Assembly Elections of Maharashtra held in November 2024 whereas in the same Assembly Segment, the INC candidate secured unbelievably high 96.7% of votes polled in Lok Sabha elections held just five months earlier,” the EC stated.
It further added, “In so far as the Electoral Roll is concerned, neither religion nor caste is ever recorded for any elector. The impression given by the article in Scroll magazine that its analysis and inference is based on the data released by the ECI is wrong in the sense that no analysis of any kind on the basis of religion or caste can be made by the data released by the ECI.”
“It is also clarified that no complaint has been received for wrongful deletion/addition of any elector or wrongful rejection of Form-6 on the basis of his/her religion in 29-Kundarki Assembly Constituency,” the Election Commission concluded.
The Congress party has been repeatedly casting aspersions on the integrity of the nodal election body in India by making dubious allegations regarding the results of the past elections.
