Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday launched a scathing attack over alleged discrepancies in voter lists in Haryana, accusing the Election Commission and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of rigging the 2024 state assembly elections.
But soon after the Assembly election results were announced in October last year, at least 16 Congress leaders filed election petitions raising questions about alleged voting irregularities.
Among the Congress leaders who filed the petitions are several who lost to BJP candidates. In Uchana Kalan seat, former MP Brijendra Singh lost to BJP’s Devender Chatar Bhuj Attri by 32 votes. In Hodal, then Haryana Congress president Uday Bhan lost to BJP’s Harinder Singh by 2,595 votes. In Badkhal, Vijay Pratap Singh lost to BJP’s Danesh Adlakha by 6,181 votes.
In two other seats, Palwal and Faridabad, Congress candidates former minister Karan Dalal and Lakhan Kumar Singla lost to Gaurav Gautam and Vipul Goel by 33,605 and 48,388 votes respectively. While Gautam is now the Minister of Revenue, Disaster Management and Civil Aviation in the BJP-led state government, Goel is a Minister of State.
Other petitioners include Neeraj Sharma (who contested for the Faridabad NIT seat last year), Amit Sehag (Dabwali), Anil Mann (Nalwa), Jai Bhagwan (Rai), Jaiveer Singh Valmiki (Kharkhoda), Manisha Sangwan (Charkhi Dadri), ML Ranga (Bawal), Sachin Kundu (Panipat Rural) and Dharam Pal (Nilokheri).
Overall, these Congress leaders alleged manipulation of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and misuse of state machinery by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Some of them even requested a recount of votes in the seats they contested. Several others, including Congress leaders who lost in Karnal, Rewari, Panipat City, Kalka and Narnaul, also lodged complaints. The party lost these constituencies by a margin ranging from 610 to 35,672 votes. All but one were won by the BJP.
Brijendra Singh had filed an “amended petition” in the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking a “recount of votes”, which his BJP rival Atri had unsuccessfully challenged. Otri then headed to the Supreme Court. In September this year, a bench comprising Justices MM Sundresh and Satish Chandra passed orders on a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by Atre, asking the Supreme Court “not to proceed with Brijendra’s petition” challenging Atre’s election. The Supreme Court also issued a notice to Brijendra Singh asking him to respond to Atri’s petition. The case is scheduled for a hearing in the Supreme Court on January 19, 2026.
In his amended petition, Brijendra Singh said that 215 postal ballots out of the total 1,373 ballots were declared invalid by the Returning Officer (RO); Of the 1,158 postal votes counted as valid, Brijendra Singh received 636 votes. The amended petition said Brijendra Singh would be satisfied if the issues related to the “improper rejection” of the 215 postal ballots were addressed, and that he would drop his other claims.
“The matter has now been listed in the Supreme Court on January 19, 2026. The opposite party has filed an SLP, for which the Supreme Court has issued notice to me. We are fighting the legal battle,” Brijendra Singh told The Indian Express.
While filing his petition in the Supreme Court last year, then state party president Bhan claimed that Congress state in-charge, Deepak Babaria, received a message from a “source” about alleged EVM rigging in 14 Assembly seats before the counting on October 8. Sharing the WhatsApp message with the media, Bhan said that the seats concerned are Kalka, Garunda, Asandh, Rai, Kharkhuda, Svedon, Ushana Kalan, Badra, Dadri, Mahendragarh, Hodal, Badkhal, Gohana and Narwana. The BJP won all 14 of these seats last year.
The petition filed by Karan Dalal, who lost to Palwal, is at the pleading stage in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Speaking to The Indian Express on Wednesday, Uday Bhan said, “Sixteen of us have filed complaints with the EC and the Punjab and Haryana High Court. While the EC has not responded to our complaints even after a year, the petitions before the Supreme Court are also in the preliminary stages. In my case, the next hearing date will be in January next year.”
“We have even sought recount/verification of votes at five booths and have deposited around Rs 3.36 lakh to the EC but have not received any satisfactory response so far,” Bhan added, referring to the deposit, as stipulated in the Supreme Court ruling, required to seek re-examination of electronic voting machines. Karan Dalal in Palwal and Sarv Miter Kamboj in Rania also made deposits for re-examination of the EVM.
Meanwhile, a senior All India Congress Committee (AICC) leader told The Indian Express: “The election petitions filed by Congress leaders in Haryana were widely alleging tampering in the electronic voting mechanism, recounting of votes, etc., but the points raised by Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday are forensic details of the way the election was stolen. Frankly, Congress leaders in Haryana have not even had a whiff of the scale to which this entire tampering was done by the BJP.”
“While we say that if we had got nearly 22,000 more votes, the (October 2024) election result would have been completely different. But, at the same time, the BJP may also say that if it had got 12,000 more votes, it would have got eight more seats in Haryana,” another Election Commission of India (ECI) leader told The Indian Express.
The BJP had won 48 of the 90 Assembly seats in Haryana in the state elections last year, creating history by forming a government for the third time in a row. Congress ranked second with 37 seats.
(tags for translation) Lok Sabha
