Rahul's claims bogus, spreading falsehoods to discredit EC: Saini

Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Saturday accused Rahul Gandhi of spreading misinformation to discredit the Election Commission and destabilise democratic institutions. He said the Opposition was resorting to falsehoods to undermine democracy. During a press conference, the CM said, "It is in his DNA. He is making these baseless and false accusations only to protect infiltrators and urban Naxals.”

He said Rahul Gandhi linked the voter list controversy during the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections to the current Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Gyanesh Kumar, even though he was appointed in February 2025. Calling the allegations "factually incorrect and politically motivated", Saini asked why Rahul Gandhi was blaming the current CEC for an incident that happened in 2023. Regarding the Aland Assembly constituency in Karnataka, which Rahul Gandhi referred to, the Congress had won from there in 2023, the CM said.

An FIR has already been registered in the matter. The Election Commission had even provided the mobile numbers and IP addresses used.

He said Rahul Gandhi recently stated that it was not his job to save democracy, but rather the job of the Congress and the INDI alliance was to oppose the BJP. That statement was enough to expose his true intentions, Saini claimed. The Election Commission of India had also held a press conference and dismissed Rahul Gandhi’s claims as baseless, the CM said.

The agency — Centre for the Study of Developing Societies — on the basis of whose report the Congress was accusing vote theft, had withdrawn its report on August 17. He said the process of removing names from a voter list was transparent as one must fill out 'Form 7', which was submitted either to the Electoral Registration Officer or through the National Voter Service Portal.

Weakening institutions was in Congress's DNA, Saini said, adding that the names and constituencies revealed by Rahul Gandhi were chosen in accordance with Congress’s interests.

“Everyone is seeing what kind of democracy exists within the Congress in Haryana. Almost a year has passed since the Assembly elections, but it has not been able to elect the Leader of Opposition,” he stated.

He targeted the Congress by mentioning the bogus voting case of Sukhbir Kataria in the 2009 Assembly elections, fake voting and booth capturing cases at 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 making votes of people who were not residents of Kaithal.