Votes are being added, deleted for BJP to win, says Congress referring to Maharashtra, Delhi SIR

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said, “The BJP and the ‘vote-stealing commission’ are constantly changing their tactics and will continue to do so. File | Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

The Congress on Tuesday (September 1, 2026) marked the exclusion of 2.06 million names from the electoral rolls of Maharashtra state after a Special Intensive Revision (SIR), saying votes were added and deleted to ensure that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the elections.

The deletions in Maharashtra, where the proposals were released on Monday (August 31), are the largest in absolute terms for any state in the ongoing SIR Phase 3.

After the 2024 Maharashtra elections, the Congress formally submitted a statement to the Election Commission alleging widespread manipulation of electoral rolls, including unusual increases in voters in several constituencies. It alleged that forged documentation such as fake Aadhaar cards with mismatched names and photographs were used to add fictitious voters without physical address verification.

On Tuesday (September 1, 2026), Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said that “BJP and the ‘Vote Stealing Commission’ are constantly changing their tactics and will continue to do so; the goal remains only one: BJP’s victory at any cost and the end of Indian democracy”.

In a post on X, he said: “Maharashtra 2024 – Between the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections, 3.9 million new voters suddenly came in. I said it then and I say it today: This was a vote stealer.”

“And now in Maharashtra 2.07 million voters have been removed from the draft list – that’s one in five voters. Lok Sabha 2024: 9.29 million, Vidhan Sabha 2024: 9.7 million, SIR 2026: 7.78 million. Which list was correct,” Mr Gandhi asked

“People don’t matter to a government built on stealing votes – that’s why this BJP doesn’t listen to the people or listen to their orders,” he added.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said votes are added when it suits the BJP. “Where this is not the case, votes are split to commit vote theft,” he said.

“BJP’s conspiracy to empty Indian democracy by stealing votes is coming to light. Instead of functioning as a watchdog of fair elections, the Election Commission is functioning as a ‘Chairman’s Commission to Save the BJP,'” he wrote on X.

The two leaders said that in West Bengal, 91% of the names of voters struck out in the SIR had to be restored after the recall. “That means 9 out of every 10 names were mistakenly deleted and added back only after the election. I said it then and I say it today: This was vote-stealing,” Mr Gandhi said.

Mr Kharge said the “same game” was being repeated in Delhi. “Ahead of the assembly elections, the number of voters increased, then the names of 4.756 million voters disappeared from the draft list and preparations are underway to issue notices to 3.3 million more voters,” he said.

He said that in Telangana and Karnataka, Congress workers face similar manipulations every day. “The country is now uniting against vote theft. The nation has understood the BJP conspiracy, the thief has been caught. He will surely be punished for holding democracy captive,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission has shared data showing that 3,35,910 booth-level agents appointed by various recognized political parties were involved in preparing the draft voter list for Maharashtra and another 33,226 for Delhi.

Published – 01 Sep 2026 20:36 IST