'Levelling false allegations Rahul Gandhi's habit', Haryana CM Saini trashes 'vote chori' charge

Chandigarh, Sep 20 (PTI) Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Saturday lashed out at Rahul Gandhi over his vote theft allegations and targeting of the Election Commission of India, saying the Congress leader has a habit of levelling false accusations and then running away.

Saini also accused the opposition of resorting to falsehoods and baseless allegations in a “calculated attempt” to undermine public trust in India's democratic process.

Sharpening his attack on the issue of “vote chori”, Gandhi on Thursday accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of protecting those who destroyed democracy.

To buttress his allegation, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha cited data from two Assembly constituencies in Karnataka and Maharashtra, where he claimed voters were deleted/added in a fraudulent manner.

The Election Commission dubbed the allegations as incorrect and baseless, and said, “No deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as misconceived by Gandhi.” Speaking to the media here, Saini alleged that the sole aim of the Congress is to break public's trust in democracy, create unrest, and destabilise India, while the BJP government is committed to protecting democracy.

He said the Congress sometimes blames EVMs and sometimes alleges democracy is in danger.

“Sometimes they (Congress) allege 'vote chori'. Rahul Gandhi saab, do you have any issue? You raise fingers at EVMs, so how were your MPs and MLAs elected? You cannot mislead the country this way,” Saini said.

Accusing the Congress leader of levelling false allegations against the ECI, the chief minister said, “He (Gandhi) comes before the public to make allegations. He calls them 'hydrogen bomb'. But it was more like ‘khoda pahad, nikla chuha'.” He also lambasted Gandhi for consistently raising fingers at the poll panel, a constitutional body, in order to weaken it.

“Rahul Gandhi and the Congress point fingers at others to hide their sins. They do not have the right to do so. Look at yourself first,” Saini said.

“Gandhi has a habit of making accusations and then running away. It is not the first time it has happened. Speaking lies is in his DNA,” he said.

Saini added that Gandhi linked the “vote theft” issue to current CEC Gyanesh Kumar, even though he was appointed in February 2025.

Calling the allegations “factually incorrect” and “politically motivated”, Saini asked why Rahul Gandhi is blaming the current CEC for an incident that happened in 2023.

He also accused Gandhi of making baseless allegations to protect infiltrators and urban Naxals.

“In the 2023 Karnataka elections, it was the Congress candidate who won from Aland (the seat Gandhi referred to). If votes were stolen, how did the Congress win? Why are you (Gandhi) misleading the country? Congress does not have any issue.

“Rahul Gandhi is putting his own MLA (from Aland) in trouble. He (the MLA) could have won because of his image,” Saini said.

Gandhi had cited details of alleged attempts to delete 6,018 votes in Karnataka's Aland constituency in the run-up to 2023 Assembly polls.

Records from Aland show that in 2023, Congress’ B R Patil won by a large margin of 10,348 votes, which means the allegations of voter deletion are baseless, Saini said.

The Congress won the seat which they did not win for a long time, does that mean the party indulged in voter fraud, Saini asked.

He also accused Gandhi of twisting facts to mislead the public.

An FIR has already been registered in the matter, Saini said. The investigation is being conducted by the CID under the Congress government in Karnataka, he said, asking Gandhi whether he didn’t trust his own party's government and its probe.

The ECI has also dismissed Gandhi's false claims, he said. Further training guns on Gandhi, Saini said the Congress leader recently said saving democracy was his job.

“Rather, Rahul and Congress' agenda is to oppose BJP's policies and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's resolve of 'Viksit Bharat' by 2047,” Saini said.

“Their aim is to divide the society. The country is watching how the Congress is working to create a rift in society in the name of caste and religion,” he said.

He also targeted the Congress by mentioning the “bogus voting” case of Sukhbir Kataria in the 2009 state polls, “fake voting and booth capturing” cases in Nuh, Ferozepur Jhirka, and Punhana during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, and the petition filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court before the 2014 Assembly elections regarding votes of people who were not residents of Kaithal.

“The Congress always cries that ‘democracy is in danger’, ‘Election Commission is sold out’, ‘names are missing’... The truth is that fake voters are out, real voters are safe, and it is not democracy but the Congress that is in danger,” Saini said.

Taking on Haryana Congress, the chief minister said it has not been able to elect its leader of opposition in the Assembly though it has been a year since elections took place in the state.

“Three Assembly sessions have taken place without the LoP. They (Congress) do not have a 'dulha' (groom),” Saini said. PTI CHS ARI