Rahul Gandhi shares spoof video in fresh dig at EC over ‘malpractice’ claims: ‘Sahab hamra vote…’ Rahul Gandhi, in an hour-long press conference on August 7, claimed the Election Commission (EC) was adopting election ‘malpractices’ to help BJP win elections. He also provided certain figures and data to substantiate his claim.

New Delhi:

Senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi on Saturday took a dig at the Election Commission, doubling down on the poll body over his ‘vote chori’ claim. Hailing his campaign against the alleged malpractice in the voter list, Rahul Gandhi shared a spoof video inspired from Bollywood movie Laapataa Ladies.

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“Secretly, stealthily…No more now, the public has awakened,” he posted on X along with the video.

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The video shows a middle-aged man entering a police station to file a theft complaint. When the officer asks him what was stolen, the man pauses for a moment and then says, “My vote.” Surprised, the policeman asks, “How can someone steal a vote?” To this the man replies, “lakhs of votes are being stolen through fake votes.”

The scene ends with a strong message on the screen: “Stealing someone’s vote is stealing their right.”

Amid Rahul Gandhi’s ardent campaign, the EC on Thursday said the Congress leader should give proof rather than providing fake narratives by using dirty phrases like ‘vote chori’.

“If anyone has any proof of any person actually voting twice in any election, it should be shared with ECI with a written affidavit rather than colouring all the electors of India as ‘chor’ without any proof,” the poll body said in a statement.

Rahul Gandhi’s campaign against EC

Rahul Gandhi, in an hour-long press conference on August 7, claimed the Election Commission (EC) was adopting election ‘malpractices’ to help BJP win elections. He also provided certain figures and data to substantiate his claim.

The Election Commission, however, repeatedly asked Rahul Gandhi to submit a signed declaration on his claims.

INDIA bloc protest against EC

The INDIA bloc also held a protest march from Parliament to the Election Commission office in Delhi against the alleged malpractice and Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.

Rahul Gandhi announces Voter Adhikar Yatra

Rahul Gandhi also announced “Voter Adhikar Yatra” against Bihar voter list revision, urging the people to join the campaign.

“From August 17, with #VoterAdhikarYatra, we are launching a direct fight against vote theft from the soil of Bihar,” he posted on X.

“This is not just an election issue – it is a decisive battle to protect democracy, the constitution, and the principle of ‘one man, one vote.’ We will ensure a clean voter list across the entire country. Youth, workers, farmers – every citizen, rise and join this people’s movement. This time, the defeat of vote thieves – the victory of the people, the victory of the constitution,” he added.

The Congress on Wednesday stepped up its campaign against alleged ‘vote chori’ by releasing a new video depicting how fake votes were being cast and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge asking people to raise their voice and save constitutional institutions from the “clutches of the BJP”.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi also shared the minute-long video and said, “Aapke vote ki chori aapke adhikar ki chori, aapki pehchaan ki chori hai.”

Tagging the advertisement titled ‘booth par vote chori”, Congress president Kharge said, “Do not let your rights to vote be snatched away. Ask questions, demand answers this time! Raise your voice against vote chori.”

“Free constitutional institutions from the clutches of the BJP,” he said in his message to the people on X.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also shared the video on X, and said, “the theft of your vote is theft of your rights, theft of your identity.”

“Save your right to vote, Raise your voice against vote theft,” she said.

The video made by the Congress depicts a family entering a polling booth with two people telling them that their votes have already been cast by them and it ends with the two persons casting fake votes showing a thumbs up to an officer sitting at the table with ‘election chori aayog’ display plate on his table.

The Congress on Tuesday had claimed that “vote chori” was a “do-or-die” issue for it, and announced a roadmap to take its allegations to the people through various activities, including taking out ‘Loktantra bachao mashaal marches’ on August 14 evening.

The opposition party also claimed that as more “evidence” of “vote chori” was coming to the fore, it seemed that it was not mere theft but “dacoity”.

The assertion was made after Kharge held a meeting with party general secretaries, in-charges and heads of its frontal organisations.

The meeting was attended by the likes of former party chief Rahul Gandhi and general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh, K C Venugopal, Sachin Pilot, Bhanwar Jitendra Singh, Ghulam Ahmad Mir, as well as treasurer Ajay Maken.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Congress leader and AICC in-charge of National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) Kanhaiya Kumar had said a “big issue” of “vote chori” has come to the fore.

“Rahul Gandhi ji has put forward the truth with evidence on how democracy is being throttled,” he had said.

Kumar had said that going forward, the Congress will take this to the people with three important programmes.

On August 14, the eve of Independence Day, there will be a ‘Loktantra bachao mashaal march’ at all district headquarters, Kumar said, adding that between August 22 and September 7, the Congress will hold “vote chor, gaddi chhorh (vote thieves, relinquish power)” rallies in all state headquarters.

“Between September 15 and October 15, a signature campaign will be run to save the right to vote and ensure people’s participation,” he had said, while asserting that the whole INDIA bloc is together on this.

The Congress has also launched a web portal for people to register and demand accountability from the poll panel against what it called “vote chori”, and express support for the demand for digital voter rolls.

Gandhi had urged people to support this demand by registering on votechori.in/ecdemand.

Anyone can click on the portal link and download “vote chori proof, demand EC accountability and report vote chori”.

It also carries Gandhi’s video in which he reiterated his explosive claims of a “huge criminal fraud” in the polls through “collusion” between the BJP and the EC.

He had cited an analysis in a constituency in Karnataka to support his claim, and said it was “a crime against the Constitution”.

On Monday, opposition MPs, including Rahul Gandhi, Kharge and Pawar, took out a protest march from the Parliament House to the Election Commission office against the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and alleged “vote chori”, but were stopped midway by the police and briefly detained amid high drama.

Congress on Saturday, 16 August, stepped up its campaign against alleged “vote theft,” releasing a new video titled “Laapata Vote” — an allusion to Bollywood movies — to underscore its claim.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, in a video posted on X, said: “‘Chori chori, chupke chupke’ no more, the public has woken up.” The Congress, sharing the same clip on its official account, asserted that the “theft of your vote is theft of rights”.

“Let’s raise our voice against vote theft together and save our rights,” the party said.

In the video, a man is shown pleading inside a police station that his “vote has been stolen.” He further tells officials that “lakhs of votes are being stolen,” prompting the police personnel to wonder aloud if their own votes have also been “stolen.”

The minute-long video is titled ‘laapata vote’ with ‘ladies’ cut out from between, a reference to the Kiran Rao-directed movie ‘Laapata Ladies’.

On 07 August 2025, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, held a press conference and alleged that manipulation and ‘vote chori’ (theft) had taken place in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. On 11 August 2025, nearly 300 Opposition MPs, including Rahul Gandhi, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, marched from parliament to the Election Commission office over the ‘vote chori’ allegations and alleged voter roll manipulation in Bihar. Several MPs were detained by the police during this protest march. Opposition parties also staged protests in several parts of India. In this context, a set of visuals showing two different protests is going viral on social media platforms, with the claim that they show ‘vote chori’ protests held across India after Rahul Gandhi’s allegations (here, here). Through this article, let us fact-check the claim made in the post.

The archived version of this post can be found here.

Claim: Visuals of ‘vote chori’ protests held across India following Rahul Gandhi’s ‘vote chori’ claims. Fact: These viral visuals are not related to the ‘Vote Chori’ protests. The first video shows a protest held by Durg district Congress members in May 2025 regarding the implementation of the MNREGA scheme. The second video shows a candle march held in Delhi, in December 2024 against the implementation of normalisation in the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) Examination. While ‘vote chori’ protests were indeed held, these videos are unrelated. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.

To ascertain the details of these viral visuals, we conducted a Google reverse image search using the keyframes from the viral videos. Reverse image searching the first video clip led us to a video posted on Instagram in May 2025. According to the caption, the video shows a protest held by Durg district Congress members in May 2025 regarding the implementation of the MNREGA scheme.

On further search, we found an extended version of the video. In this version, a board can be seen on an e-rickshaw moving through a crowd, with the words “Majdooron ko MNREGA mein rozgar karega” (labourers will have to be given employment in MNREGA) written on it. This makes it clear that the protest was unrelated to the ‘vote chori’ issue.

We then conducted a relevant keyword search and found multiple news reports (here, here) about this protest held in Durg, Chhattisgarh, in May 2025. According to these reports, the demonstration was led by District Rural Congress President Rakesh Thakur in Durg, Chhattisgarh, demanding sufficient employment for labourers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA). While marching from Rajiv Bhawan to the Durg Collector’s Office, the protesters also passed by the BJP office, raising slogans. We also found videos related to this protest on the Facebook pages of Durg District Rural Congress President Rakesh Thakur and former Durg City MLA Arun Vora (here, here).

Reverse image search of the second video clip led us to a video posted on the YouTube channel of ‘India News Bihar Jharkhand’ in December 2024. According to its description, it shows a candle march held in Delhi in December 2024 against the implementation of normalisation in the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) examination. Several others (here, here, and here) also shared this video in December, claiming it showed protests against the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) in Delhi. In December 2024, protests were indeed held in Patna, Bihar (here, here, here, and here).

To sum it up, these viral visuals are not related to the ‘vote chori’ protests.

NEW DELHI: A fresh jibe added to

’s string of attacks on the

, as the Congress MP and Lok Sabha LoP on Saturday used a parody clip from the Hindi film “Laapataa Ladies” to target the poll body.

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Sharing a one-minute video inspired by Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies, Rahul posted on X: “Chori chori, chupke chupke… Ab aur nahi, jantaa jaag gayi hai” (Now, no more, the public has woken up).

In the video, a man walks into a police station to report a theft. While the policeman lists usual stolen items, the man responds that he has fallen victim to “vote theft.”

Meanwhile, the

has urged people to join its “Vote Chori se Azaadi” campaign in support of Rahul’s allegations against the Election Commission and BJP.

Rahul also announced the launch of “VoterAdhikarYatra” from August 17 in Bihar, calling it a direct fight against vote theft.

Poll Should the Election Commission be held accountable for alleged election manipulation? Definitely, they need accountability. No, they are doing their job.

Also read:

“From August 17, with #VoterAdhikarYatra, we are launching a direct fight against vote theft from the soil of Bihar,” he said on X.

This comes amid INDIA bloc protests and Rahul’s repeated charge that elections are being manipulated. On August 7, he alleged: “Elections are choreographed.

Our internal polling told us we would win 16 seats in Karnataka; we won nine. We then focused on seven unexpected losses. We chose one Lok Sabha, and our team decided we could only focus on one Vidhan Sabha (seat). So we focused on Mahadevapur. Here is the broad math.

All data is 2024 data from the Election Commission. Total votes polled in the Lok Sabha were 6.26 lakh. The BJP won with 6,58,915, securing a margin of 32,707. But then we look at Mahadevapura, where Congress polls 1,15,586 and BJP polls 2,29,632. Congress wins all Vidhan Sabhas but this one. This seat wins them the election.”

Also read:

He also said on August 7 that “Elections are choreographed and EC colluding with the BJP.”