"Dead" Indian Voters Gather to Drink Tea with Rahul Gandhi, Exposing Alleged Voter Manipulation Scandal

Strategic Insights -

Rahul Gandhi, India's opposition leader, is leading a "vote adhikar yatra" (voting rights march) across Bihar, a state in India's eastern region, to highlight allegations of voter list manipulation by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP, which has denied the rigging charges, has removed the names of 6.5 million Indian voters from the list, allegedly to boost its chances in the upcoming polls in Bihar. Gandhi claims the missing voters could be used by the BJP to claim victory in the state.

Key Takeaways:

  • 65,000,00 Indian voters have been excluded from the draft electoral rolls by the Election Commission of India (ECI), with most of them being assumed to be absentees, dead, or have shifted ahead of a crucial vote in Bihar.
  • At least seven of these "dead" voters were invited by Gandhi to his bungalow in Delhi to drink tea with him.
  • Gandhi has accused the ECI of helping the BJP win elections across the country by manipulating the voters' rolls.
  • The BJP and the ECI have denied the rigging charges.
  • Gandhi's party has launched an internal investigation into the Bengaluru Central constituency in the recently held state assembly elections in Karnataka, allegedly showing at least 1,00,250 votes being "stolen".
  • The Congress claims the Indian poll body registered people aged 90 as first-time voters but proof of their existence has not been found.
  • The Congress found a 70-year-old woman named Shakun Rani who has filled Form 6 as a first-time Indian voter twice in two months, and voted twice as well.
  • The BJP won the Lok Sabha seat of Bengaluru Central's Mahadevpura with 100,570 fake voters, according to a dossier by the Congress.

Statistics:

  • 6.5 million Indian voters have been removed from the list by the ECI.
  • 65,000,00 Indian voters have been excluded from the draft electoral rolls by the ECI.
  • 1,00,250 votes were allegedly "stolen" in the Bengaluru Central constituency.
  • 11,965 duplicate voters were allegedly registered in four different constituencies.
  • 40,009 voters were registered with fake and invalid addresses.
  • 10,452 bulk voters in one house were registered.
  • 4,132 voters were registered with invalid photos or no photos at all.
  • 33,692 voters were registered through the misuse of Form 6.

Sources:

  • The Independent
  • The Hindu
  • Rahul Gandhi's Twitter account