Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bharadwaj has strongly supported Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's allegations of systematic 'vote chori' or vote theft occurring across India, while expressing skepticism about its effectiveness as an election issue.
Organized Electoral Manipulation Across India
In an exclusive interview with The Indian Express, Bharadwaj stated he is convinced about organized vote chori happening nationwide based on his firsthand experience in Delhi. The former Delhi minister acknowledged Rahul Gandhi's accusations against the Bharatiya Janata Party and Election Commission of India, claiming they are systematically manipulating electoral rolls and vote counting to benefit the ruling party.
However, Bharadwaj presented a nuanced perspective, noting that while vote theft is real, it cannot effectively become an election issue. "As a voter, I don't think people vote thinking that since there was vote chori, they will not vote for the BJP. You can't really make it an election issue — but you can make it a mass movement across the country," explained the AAP's Delhi president.
Personal Experience and Statistical Evidence
Bharadwaj shared his personal political defeat as evidence, referring to his loss from the Greater Kailash seat in the 2025 Delhi assembly polls to BJP's Shikha Rai. "When I lost in Delhi, in my constituency — as a sitting MLA — I knew I was winning. Even the BJP knew it. So when I lost, I was convinced there was some kind of manipulation," he revealed.
The AAP leader provided specific data to support his claims, pointing to the New Delhi constituency during the 2020 Legislative Assembly election where there were 1.48 lakh votes. By December 2024, this number had increased to approximately 1.6 lakh votes, yet 42,000 votes had been deleted during this period.
Bharadwaj emphasized the suspicious pattern of these deletions, stating that many people in whose names deletion applications were filed have gone on record claiming they never filed such applications.
Official Complaints and Election Commission's Response
The former minister disclosed that then Delhi Chief Minister Atishi submitted a written complaint with evidence to the Election Commission regarding these irregularities, but no FIR has been filed yet. Bharadwaj himself filed an RTI in August 2025, almost eight months after submitting their complaint, seeking its status but received the same response to every question: "We have no information."
The Election Commission has consistently denied these allegations. In response to Rahul Gandhi's claims that the 2024 Haryana Assembly polls were rigged with 25 lakh votes stolen through duplicate, invalid, and bulk voters, the EC countered by releasing a list of 'important facts' for the Haryana elections on social media.
Despite the seriousness of the allegations and the statistical evidence presented, Bharadwaj believes that while vote chori represents a significant democratic challenge, it requires a mass movement rather than electoral politics to address effectively.
