He said that BJP governments at Centre and in Haryana were “not legitimately formed”, and that Opposition would coordinate further action.
Published Nov 05, 2025 | 6:13 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 05, 2025 | 6:13 PM
A Brazilian model’s photo” appeared multiple times on Haryana’s voter lists. Credit: x.com/INCIndia, x.com/KirenRijiju
Synopsis: BJP slammed Rahul Gandhi’s Haryana “vote theft” claims as diversion from Bihar poll failures, mocking his “atom bomb” rhetoric and foreign trips. BJP leader Kiren Rijiju cited Congress’ infighting and “fake allegations” in the past. Gandhi alleged 25 lakh bogus votes in Haryana, using EC data issued before the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Haryana CEO has promised a detailed rebuttal soon.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday, 5 November, rebuked Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, over his claims of “vote theft” in Haryana.
At a press conference, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju asserted that Rahul Gandhi was trying to “hide his failures” by raising irrelevant matters.
“Rahul Gandhi addressed the press to hide his failures. There will be polling in Bihar tomorrow, however, he was sharing stories about Haryana. This shows that the Congress has nothing left in Bihar and this is why, to deviate attention, he is raking up the Haryana issue. I would advise him that being Leader of Opposition, he should talk on serious issues and not waste time over irrelevant things,” Rijiju said.
Rijiju recalled how, during the previous Parliament session, Gandhi had circulated a photograph of a woman named Minta Devi, which eventually proved misleading. “He used a fake photograph, a fake name, and a fake issue, something Rahul Gandhi and the Congress repeatedly do,” he alleged.
He derided Gandhi’s assertion that a “Brazilian model’s photo” appeared multiple times on Haryana’s voter lists, labelling it another instance of the Congress leader’s “habit of creating fake issues.”
According to Rijiju, Rahul Gandhi’s choice to highlight the Haryana matter as Bihar prepared to vote indicated that “nothing is left for him in Bihar.”
25 lakh Vote Chori in Haryana, and there are 5 categories:
⦁ Duplicate voters – 5,21,619
⦁ Invalid addresses – 93,174
⦁ Bulk voters – 19,26,351
⦁ Misuse of Form 6 (additions)
⦁ Misuse of Form 7 (deletions)
👉 TOTAL – 25,41,144
Notice that we have left the last 2… pic.twitter.com/BlUChg1yTN
— Congress (@INCIndia) November 5, 2025
The minister further claimed that Gandhi “often goes abroad during elections” and returns with “baseless ideas.”
He said, “During elections, he goes abroad; during Parliament sessions, he secretly visits places like Cambodia and Thailand. Now, during the Bihar elections, he went to Colombia. He brings back ideas from there, gives them to his team, and they prepare these baseless narratives.”
Mocking Gandhi’s claims, Rijiju said, “Rahul Gandhi says that the atom bomb is going to explode, but why doesn’t his atom bomb ever explode? He doesn’t take any subject seriously and even says that a hydrogen bomb will explode.”
Rijiju charged the Congress with losing support owing to internal discord. Citing senior Congress leader Kumari Selja’s remark, he said, “In Haryana, elections were underway, and at the same time, Kumari Selja said that Congress would not be able to win because the party’s own leaders want to defeat it.”
He added that several Congress leaders had privately voiced frustration, saying that “as long as Rahul Gandhi remains their leader, Congress cannot win.”
On Wednesday, Gandhi had branded the Haryana elections a “lie”, alleging that the state’s voter list was severely compromised. At the press conference, he claimed that a “corrupt voter list undermines democracy” and that “the fundamental question of an election is the integrity of the voter list.”
Armed with what he termed “100 percent proof”, Gandhi alleged that 25 lakh fake votes, or about 12 percent of the state’s electorate, were cast. He claimed there was “systemic manipulation” to convert a Congress win into defeat.
According to Gandhi, nearly 3.5 lakh voters had been deleted from the electoral rolls before the polls. He alleged that the EC overlooked duplicate entries to benefit the BJP.
The Congress leader also displayed slides revealing purported discrepancies in voter rolls, including a notable case: a Brazilian model’s photograph allegedly appearing multiple times under names like Seema, Sweety, and Saraswati, supposedly to vote 22 times.
He maintained that the BJP governments at the Centre and in Haryana were “not legitimately formed” and that the Opposition would coordinate further action.
He added that his team was using official data to expose irregularities and that the issue was before the Supreme Court. “We are not doing it in a quiet room, we are doing it in front of Indian media… This is their data, not ours,” he said.
Meanwhile, Haryana Chief Electoral Officer has responded to Rahul Gandhi claims. In an X post, the CEO said, “Detailed response to the Press Conference of LOP Shri Rahul Gandhi is to follow soon.”
Dear Electors,
Detailed response to the Press Conference of LOP Shri Rahul Gandhi is to follow soon.
CEO Haryana
— Chief Electoral Officer, Haryana (@ceoharyana) November 5, 2025
