Rahul Gandhi’s ‘H-Files’ Unraveled: A Critique of Congress’s Electoral Conspiracy Claims in HaryanaIn the wake of the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi staged a high-profile press conference, brandishing what he dubbed the “H-Files” as irrefutable proof of widespread “vote chori” (vote theft). Portraying himself as a whistleblower against a grand BJP-orchestrated rigging scheme, Gandhi leveled a barrage of accusations ranging from duplicate voter entries to manipulated exit polls and even fabricated identities using photos of a Brazilian model.

However, a closer examination reveals these claims as a house of cards built on selective facts, outright fabrications, and political theater. Far from exposing electoral malfeasance, the “H-Files” expose Congress’s recurring playbook: deflecting defeat through misinformation and victimhood narratives. This analysis dissects each allegation, highlighting how they crumble under scrutiny, ultimately underscoring a deeper erosion of opposition credibility.Gandhi’s opening salvo targeted alleged multiple voting in the Mulana Assembly Constituency, specifically booth number 63 in Dhakola village.
He dramatically claimed that an unidentified elderly woman’s name appeared 223 times across booths, implying systematic duplication to inflate BJP votes. “The Election Commission needs to tell us how many times this lady… occurs 223 times in one booth,” he thundered, suggesting a split into booths 63 and 64 for 2024 was a cover-up for fraud.Reality paints a far less sinister picture. The Election Commission routinely redraws booth boundaries when voter numbers exceed limits, a standard administrative measure to ensure efficient polling. In 2019, booth 63 covered Dhakola, while 64 handled nearby Rampur.
For 2024, Rampur shifted to booth 65, and Dhakola was simply divided for practicality—nothing more. Gandhi’s “evidence” of duplication ignores this context entirely.More damningly, the electoral outcome in Dhakola contradicts his rigging narrative. Congress not only held but strengthened its position here. In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP led with a comfortable margin; by 2024, Congress surged ahead in both Lok Sabha and Assembly contests, slashing BJP’s vote share by nearly 50%. Mulana itself went to Congress, making Gandhi’s use of a pro-opposition booth as “proof” of theft laughably inconsistent.
Why decry manipulation in a victory pocket? The answer lies in selective outrage: cherry-pick data that fits the script, bury the rest. This booth’s voters, far from being duped phantoms, actively backed Gandhi’s party, dismantling the duplication myth at its core.Shifting gears, Gandhi invoked exit polls to argue that predicted Congress leads mysteriously evaporated, pointing to “fictional” results favoring BJP. He cited surveys showing his party ahead, branding the final tallies as engineered reversals. Yet, this tactic reeks of hypocrisy.
For years, Gandhi has derided exit polls as BJP propaganda tools—calling them “demoralization exercises” in 2014, 2019, and the 2024 Lok Sabha race when they projected NDA victories. Only when a handful tilted toward Congress in Haryana did they become sacrosanct.Exit polls, governed by Election Commission protocols, are probabilistic snapshots with inherent error margins of 2-5%. Normal variances between surveys and outcomes are routine, not conspiracies. Gandhi’s flip-flop exposes a pattern: embrace data for ammunition, dismiss it as rigged otherwise.
By weaponizing selective polls, he sows doubt without evidence, a classic misdirection to mask Congress’s underperformance.No less contrived was his fixation on ballot papers. Gandhi alleged Congress dominated postal and ballot votes early on, only for EVM counts to “steal” the leads, implying targeted fraud. He spotlighted constituencies where initial postal trends favored his party. Omitted, however, is the trivial scale: ballots comprised just 0.57% of Haryana’s total votes, with EVMs handling 99.43%. Amplifying a negligible sliver to indict the system is statistical sleight-of-hand.Historical precedents abound—Bihar 2015 saw postal leads flip post-EVM without fraud cries.
Scrutiny of Gandhi’s examples reveals irony: in four seats (Julana, Hathin, Nangal Chaudhry, Adampur), BJP actually led postals but lost overall, mirroring the “anomaly” he decried. This bidirectional swing underscores electoral dynamism, not deceit. Gandhi’s narrative inverts facts, transforming routine discrepancies into a phantom theft.Gandhi’s distortions extended to verbal sleights. He circulated a clipped video of Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini saying, “We have all the arrangements,” with a smile, twisting it into a confession of rigging blueprints. The full context? Saini was addressing alliance queries post-polls: “We will not need any alliance… BJP will form the government alone.
We have all the arrangements.” The phrase referred to internal campaign logistics and solo-governance confidence, not vote-fiddling.Saini rebuked the edit as a “lie from a family that ruled for four generations yet peddles falsehoods.” This doctored clip exemplifies Congress’s reliance on viral misinformation—trim, amplify, accuse—to sustain outrage. It’s not analysis; it’s propaganda.Narrow margins formed another plank, with Gandhi lamenting Congress’s eight-seat losses totaling 22,779 votes, extrapolating to a statewide 1.18 lakh-vote “theft.”
Among Haryana’s ten tightest races, Congress clinched six, BJP three—proof that slim edges are democratic norms, not foul play. Recall 2018 Madhya Pradesh, where BJP’s narrow defeats didn’t spark fraud howls despite higher vote shares. Gandhi’s math ignores this symmetry, framing losses as anomalies while silent on wins. It’s desperation masquerading as detective work.The duplicate voter trope escalated to absurdity: a woman allegedly voting 22 times across 10 booths, branded a “centralized operation.” Voter rolls aren’t infallible—migration, typos, and kin similarities spawn duplicates, addressed via pre-election revisions Congress often opposes as “disenfranchising.”
No real-time complaints from party agents, no CCTV challenges within the 45-day window. The EC fielded just five counting-era gripes, all resolved. Gandhi’s post-loss clamor? Pure performance.His wildest gambit involved “25 lakh fictitious voters”—one in eight—yet polling agents, including Congress’s, monitored flawlessly. This hyperbole aims to inflame, not inform.Enter the farce of the “Brazilian model hoax.” Gandhi flashed photos claiming a single image graced multiple Haryana voter IDs, a BJP-ECI plot. The “model”? Larissa Nery, a Brazilian influencer and hairdresser.
Stunned by Indian troll influxes, she videoed a denial: “They used my old stock photo… I’ve never been to India. What madness!” Photographed years prior by Mathews Ferrero for public use, her image was hijacked sans consent.Undeterred, Congress digital warriors persisted, peddling “Brazil holiday” jabs at the EC. This blunder isn’t isolated—it’s emblematic of truth-indifference, prioritizing memes over merit.Gandhi’s youth outreach, timed post-Nepal/Bangladesh unrest, seeks to radicalize Gen-Z via fearmongering. First-timers, he posits, face a stolen franchise. Yet, India’s digitally savvy youth discern bluster from substance.In Hodal, Gandhi alleged ghost clusters: a house with 66 “fake” voters and another with 501.
Ground checks debunked both. The 66? The Gurdhana clan, four generations on ancestral House No. 150 since the 1940s, legitimately registered. The 501? Sorout family land, subdivided into 200 homes and schools post-2013 sales, all under original No. 265. Residents like Shyamwati Singh vouched for authenticity. Gandhi’s fragments—omitting family histories—craft illusions from truths.In sum, the “H-Files” aren’t files of fraud but facades of fury.
Transparent polls, verified by agents and observers, affirm fairness. Gandhi’s spectacle—doctored clips, inverted stats, borrowed photos—deflects accountability, eroding institutional trust. Congress’s dynasty clings to conspiracy, not renewal, turning democratic verdicts into victim tales. Haryana voted change; Rahul peddles chaos. As claims cascade into credibility craters, one truth endures: no votes were stolen, but plenty of public patience has been squandered.
Reference link – https://dhunt.in/12qhLC
Newspatrolling.com News cum Content Syndication Portal Online