EC to hold press conference tomorrow over Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Vote Chori’ allegation

The Election Commission of India, surrounded by serious allegations of ‘vote theft’, can now clarify its position on these allegations.

New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced that it will hold an important press conference on Sunday, August 17 at 3 pm at the National Media Center in New Delhi. This information has been given by the Director General (Media) of the Commission. In this press conference, senior officials of the Election Commission can share important announcements and updates, which may be related to the upcoming elections and voter list revision.

Apart from this, the Election Commission of India, surrounded by serious allegations of 'vote theft', can now clarify its position on these allegations. Actually this press conference is taking place at a time when opposition parties, especially the Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi, have questioned the impartiality of the Commission by alleging alleged rigging in the voter list and 'vote theft'.

Sequence of allegations of 'vote theft'
For the past few months, especially after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the assembly elections held thereafter, opposition parties have alleged widespread irregularities in the voter list. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, in a press conference in New Delhi on August 7, had claimed that around 1,00,250 votes were stolen, citing Mahadevapura assembly constituency of Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha seat in Karnataka. He made serious allegations like duplicate voters in the voter list, fake addresses, and hundreds of voters having names under the same address. Rahul also said that if this rigging had not happened, Congress could have won 16 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, but it got only 9 seats.

Apart from this, Rahul Gandhi also claimed irregularities in the voter list in Maharashtra and Haryana elections, with lakhs of voters being added in an unusual manner in five months. He accused the Election Commission of colluding with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and demanded that the Commission make the digital and machine-readable voter list public.

Though no official information has been shared about the agenda of the press conference yet, it is believed that the Election Commission may respond to the allegations of 'vote theft' being levelled by the Congress party.

Election Commission of India to hold an important press conference on Sunday at 3 pm in New Delhi amid SIR controversy and ‘vote theft’ allegations by LoP Rahul Gandi. #SIR #VoteChori #RahulGandhi #ElectionCommissionOfIndia @ECISVEEP pic.twitter.com/acoIQ04khI

— Dynamite News (@DynamiteNews_) August 16, 2025

Election Commission's response

In response to the allegations made by the Congress leader, the Election Commission has already clarified its position several times. On August 11, the Commission had rejected the claims of Rahul Gandhi and opposition parties, terming them "factually incorrect and misleading". The Commission, through a fact-check post on social media, said that the accuracy of the voter list is essential for the strengthening of democracy and it has followed a transparent process. The Commission, citing the Chief Electoral Officers of Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana, claimed that the names of some of the voters (such as Aditya Srivastava and Vishal Singh) mentioned by Rahul Gandhi were found only in the voter list of Karnataka, and not in Uttar Pradesh or other states, as alleged.

The Chief Electoral Officer of Haryana also issued a letter on August 7 saying that the voter list was prepared in a transparent manner under the Representation of the People Act 1950 and the Electoral Registration Rules 1960, and the draft and final voter lists were shared with the Congress.

Election Commission should publish details of 65 lakh voters removed along with reasons: Court

Let us tell you that the Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Election Commission to publish the details of 65 lakh voters removed from the draft voter list to increase transparency in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list of Bihar and also give reasons for not including them. A bench of Justice Suryakant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi passed this order while hearing the petitions challenging the Election Commission's decision of June 24 to conduct SIR of the voter list in Bihar. It said that the names of 65 lakh voters were in the voter list, but were removed from the draft list. The draft list was published on August 1.

The list of names of those who have died, migrated or moved to other constituencies was directed to be displayed at the Panchayat level office and the office of the District level Election Officers along with the reasons. The bench stressed on wide publicity through newspapers including local language and English dailies besides television news channels and radio, so that people can be informed about the places where the list will be available.