It is not right to question the transparency and credibility of the country's electoral process

     Rahul Gandhi on Thursday held a press conference and made one of the most serious allegations against the Election Commission so far. He claimed that there was large-scale rigging in the voter list in the Lok Sabha elections as well as the assembly elections of Maharashtra and Haryana, so much so that the direction of the election results changed.

     This allegation is not just a rhetoric of election strategy, but a direct attack on the credibility of a constitutional institution. The way he accused large-scale rigging of the voter list in the Lok Sabha elections as well as the assembly elections of Maharashtra and Haryana is an issue that strikes at the core of the transparency and credibility of the country's electoral process. This allegation goes beyond the debate of who won and who lost to the point where the question arises whether we can trust our democratic machinery.

     Rahul Gandhi claimed with statistics that in Maharashtra, one crore new voters were added in just five months between the Lok Sabha and assembly elections, which is more than the voters added in the last five years. This increase is not only more than the natural proportion of the population, but also makes the pattern of electoral results suspicious. In Haryana, according to him, a margin of just 22,779 votes was decisive in eight seats, while one lakh votes were stolen in one seat. The allegations of more than one lakh fake or duplicate votes in Mahadevapura in Karnataka and the name of the same person being registered in different states make this whole story even more serious.

    He alleged that not providing machine-readable voter lists, destruction of CCTV footage, and large-scale misuse of Form 6 are all evidence of collusion between the Election Commission and the BJP. If these allegations are true, then this is not just electoral irregularity, but a direct challenge to the legitimacy of the democratic process. The Election Commission termed these allegations as misleading and said that if Rahul Gandhi has evidence, then it should be submitted in writing along with an affidavit. The Commission argues that the voter list is prepared through a transparent process under the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the Registration of Voters Rules, 1960, and objections to it can be made through an election petition in court. The Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka also said that the voter list was made available to the Congress in November 2024 and January 2025.

    This response may be technically correct, but it lacks the political and moral sensitivity expected of a constitutional institution. In a democracy, it is not enough to say only the legal route is open, an active and transparent investigation is imperative to restore public confidence. The BJP outright rejected the allegations and called them an excuse to hide the Congress's defeat. Devendra Fadnavis, Prahlad Joshi and Sambit Patra retorted that if the elections were rigged, how would Congress candidates win in states like Jharkhand or Jammu and Kashmir. This argument may be politically effective, but it does not answer the basic question—the accuracy of the voter list.

    For the Congress, this is an opportunity to present itself with an agenda of protecting democracy, but for this it will have to put forth concrete and verifiable evidence before the public. Without concrete evidence, the issue may get lost in the noise of mere election rhetoric. India's electoral machinery is governed by multi-level monitoring and rules, with multiple layers of checks and balances on compilation of voter lists, polling process, counting, and declaration of results. Technically, organised manipulation on such a large scale is considered close to impossible, but there is a difference between impossible and never.

    In the past, problems like dead persons' names remaining in the voter list, registration of migrant voters, abnormal number of voters at the same address, and duplicate entries have been seen. In most cases, it is administrative negligence, but when it is large-scale and in a planned manner, the matter becomes different. Democracy is not based only on ballot boxes and ballot papers, it rests on the belief that every vote counts and every vote matters. If the public starts believing that voter lists are manipulated and their voices are silenced by pre-determined results, it will be a huge blow to both the legitimacy of elections and the credibility of the institutions.

    So, for the Election Commission, it is not just a matter of dismissing the allegations but an opportunity to strengthen its credibility. A quick, independent and transparent investigation will not only clear the allegations but also prevent any kind of doubt in the future. Overall, Rahul Gandhi's allegations have taken the national debate on electoral transparency to a new level. This debate is not just limited to the legitimacy of the current election results but is also linked to the credibility of the upcoming elections in states like Bihar, West Bengal and Assam.

    The challenge for political parties is to rise above their short-term gains and maintain public confidence in democratic institutions, and the challenge for the Election Commission is to fulfill both legal formalities as well as moral responsibility to prove that India's democracy is still as strong and fair as it should be, because ultimately, the real strength of democracy lies not in results, but in the confidence that every citizen's voice is truly heard.