‘Election watchdog kept watching theft and protecting thieves’: Rahul Gandhi targets EC, BJP

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday launched a scathing attack on the Election Commission (EC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over ‘Vote Chori’, claiming that the election watchdog “stayed awake” to watch the “theft” and protect the thieves.

The Congress MP accused the BJP and the Poll Panel of facilitating large-scale “voter manipulation” during the elections. In a post on X, Gandhi alleged that lakhs of “voters” had been removed from electoral rolls in a matter of seconds, and claimed that the poll body had deliberately turned a “blind eye” to the wrongdoing.

“Wake up at 4 AM,…Delete two voters in 36 seconds,…Then go back to sleep – that’s how the vote theft happened! The election watchdog stayed awake, kept watching the theft, kept protecting the thieves”, Rahul Gandhi wrote on X.

सुबह 4 बजे उठो,
36 सेकंड में 2 वोटर मिटाओ,
फिर सो जाओ – ऐसे भी हुई वोट चोरी!

चुनाव का चौकीदार जागता रहा, चोरी देखता रहा, चोरों को बचाता रहा।#VoteChoriFactory pic.twitter.com/pLSKAXH1Eu

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 19, 2025

Meanwhile, BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad claimed that he does not prepare before speaking in public and spreads lies. The BJP leader slammed Rahul Gandhi for questioning Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the alleged deletion of over 6,000 voters in Karnataka’s Aland. He added that Gandhi had made accusations regarding the 2023 Assembly elections while Kumar was appointed as the CEC in February 2025.

#WATCH | Patna, Bihar | BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad says, “What’s wrong with Rahul Gandhi? How many lies will he tell? How much will he distort facts? I could use harsher words than this. But Rahul Gandhi, that’s not my culture, nor is it my party’s culture. But you’re betraying… pic.twitter.com/fch7ab1Z3z

— ANI (@ANI) September 19, 2025

Addressing reporters, Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “What has happened to Rahul Gandhi? How much will he lie? You are deceiving the democracy. I have previously said that Rahul Gandhi never does his homework”.

On Thursday, Rahul Gandhi alleged an attempt to delete over 6000 votes in Karnataka’s Aland. “In Aland, Karnataka, 6018 votes, somebody tried to delete these votes. We don’t know the total number of votes deleted in the 2023 elections, but somebody got caught. It was caught, by most crimes, by coincidence. What happened was that the Booth Level officer noticed that her uncle’s vote had been deleted. When she checked, she saw that her neighbour had deleted the vote”, Rahul Gandhi said during a press conference. (ANI)