On 7 August 2025 Rahul Gandhi said 1,00,250 votes had been "stolen" in the Mahadevapura assembly segment in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The Election Commission calls the claim false and has asked him for a sworn declaration, and no independent fact-check of his figures has been published, so the claim stays disputed.
Claim: 1,00,250 votes were "stolen" in Mahadevapura, part of the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat, in 2024.
Said by: Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition, at a press conference in New Delhi on 7 August 2025.
What the record shows: The ECI called the claims "false and misleading" and asked for names and a signed declaration. No independent check of the figures was found.
Where the claim came from
Gandhi said Congress had expected to win 16 of Karnataka's 28 seats in 2024 but won nine, so it studied seven unexpected losses and chose Mahadevapura. The BJP won Bangalore Central by 32,707 votes. In the Mahadevapura segment alone, the BJP led by 1,14,046 votes, while Congress won every other segment. The Week/PTI
Claim · Rahul Gandhi He split the 1,00,250 "stolen" votes into five groups: The Week/PTI
- 11,965 duplicate voters
- 40,009 voters at fake or invalid addresses
- 10,452 bulk voters at single addresses
- 4,132 voters with invalid photos
- 33,692 cases of misuse of Form 6, the new-voter form
Scroll gives the bulk-voter figure as 10,454 and says Congress spent six months on the analysis. Scroll The claim became the core of the "vote chori" campaign, followed by the Voter Adhikar Yatra in Bihar from 17 August 2025.
What the evidence shows
ECI's position The Chief Electoral Officers of Karnataka and Maharashtra asked Gandhi to name the electors he said were wrong and sign a declaration under Rule 20(3)(b) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, so proceedings could begin. The Week/PTI On 14 August the Commission called the Mahadevapura claims "false and misleading". Scroll
At an 85-minute press conference on 17 August 2025, CEC Gyanesh Kumar said: "Give an affidavit or apologise to the nation. There is no third option." He said appearing on two lists does not mean someone voted twice. The Week/PTI
Claim · Rahul Gandhi Gandhi said his public remarks could be taken as his oath, and that the Commission was "very scared" to act against him. The Week/PTI
No independent check No independent fact-checker or academic study has tested the five categories against the roll. Some categories, such as many voters at one address, can have innocent explanations, and others, such as duplicates, would need entry-by-entry checks. Whether any duplicate entry was actually used to vote twice has not been shown by either side.
Context
The BJP called the claims "calculated deceit". Dharmendra Pradhan, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde dismissed them. Mallikarjun Kharge and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah backed them. The Week/PTI In November 2025 Gandhi made a similar claim of 25 lakh fake entries in Haryana. Scroll The fight over the voter rolls is set out on our SIR and CEC page.
Questions people ask
What is the Mahadevapura vote chori claim?
Rahul Gandhi alleged on 7 August 2025 that 1,00,250 votes in Mahadevapura were fraudulent, citing duplicates, fake addresses, bulk voters, invalid photos and Form 6 misuse.
What did the Election Commission say?
It called the claims "false and misleading" and asked Gandhi to submit the names with a signed declaration under the 1960 rules. The CEC told him to give an affidavit or apologise.
Has anyone verified the Mahadevapura figures?
No independent fact-check or study of the figures has been found. The claim remains disputed between Congress and the ECI.
