Hooda, Rao lead Cong protest in Ambala against alleged vote fraud

Former Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Haryana Congress president Rao Narender Singh today led a massive protest in Ambala against what the Congress termed as “vote theft” during the recent elections.

A large number of party leaders, workers and members of the public joined the demonstration. Later, the Congress delegation submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner’s office, addressed to the President of India.

Addressing the gathering, Hooda said Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi had exposed vote theft with concrete evidence.

“His revelations, first in Karnataka, then Maharashtra and now Haryana, have cast the Election Commission in doubt. The Election Commission is not performing its duties impartially. In some places, 501 votes were cast in a single house, in some, 223 votes were made in the name of a single woman, and in some places, 22 votes were cast using the photo of a foreign woman,” said Hooda.

He said these were only a few examples, while the actual fraud involved lakhs of votes. Citing past trends, Hooda added that results of all previous elections showed that the party leading in postal ballots had always gone on to form the government.

“This time, Congress was ahead in 73 seats in the postal ballot count, but was defeated in the EVM count,” he said.

Hooda also raised questions about the changing voter turnout figures released by the Election Commission.

“For example, on the night of October 5, 2024, the Commission reported a 61.19% turnout in Haryana. However, the next day, it was increased to 65.65%, and on the 7th — a day before counting — it rose again to 67.9%. It is beyond comprehension how such a sudden increase in votes occurred,” he pointed out.

He said the Congress had resolved to continue its statewide and nationwide protests against vote theft and would not allow the BJP government to tamper with the Constitution.

In his address, Rao Narender Singh said that Rahul Gandhi had presented “the truth to the people in the Lok Sabha,” which had surprised the people of Haryana and the entire nation.

“In Haryana, the people had elected Congress, but the BJP seized power through collusion and machine manipulation,” he alleged.