The credibility of India’s elections is the strength of its democracy. Rahul Gandhi’s persistent assault on the impartiality of the Election Commission of India has managed to sow a seed of suspicion about the integrity of one of the principal pillars of that credibility. As the Congress leader continues with his campaign against alleged ‘vote chori’—something that became an issue at the just-concluded Bihar polls—the onus is squarely on the ECI to address the trust deficit. Mere dismissal of the diligently-gathered accusations is utterly inadequate in countering the allegations of fraud and restoring the public’s trust in the electoral system.
Rahul’s latest presentation was based on the 2024 Haryana assembly election, where he alleged the BJP won with the help of 25 lakh ‘fake votes’. While claiming that one in eight voters in the state was fake, he showed the picture of one woman that allegedly appeared 223 times on the voter list; another woman, apparently a Brazilian model, appeared 22 times under different names at 10 booths. At an age when election controllers around the world are considering ‘pre-bunking’—publishing factual information before disinformation is aired—the ECI has chosen an ostrich-like posture.
To the accusation Gandhi levelled in August citing data from Karnataka’s Mahadevapura, the ECI responded by asking him to register a formal complaint. This time, its defence was that no appeal had been filed against the rolls and no multiple voting flagged during the election. Fair enough. But how does one explain 223 listings for one voter? Whether flagged in time or not, such gross anomalies punch holes in the touted impregnable fairness of the election process. The ‘vote chori’ campaign may seem like a show with little political impact; however, the concerns raised deserve to be dispelled through sound answers and actions.
If not satisfactorily addressed, it will remain an issue at the upcoming elections. A recent survey that flagged a sharp drop in public trust in the ECI underscores the need to protect the constitutional body’s image as an independent and impartial entity. That deficit is the reason the special intensive revisions, aimed at restoring the integrity of electoral rolls, have come under a shadow. The honour of being the world’s largest democracy also comes with an enormous responsibility of safeguarding the credibility of the election process. That task belongs mostly to the ECI.
