Shashi Tharoor Backs Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Vote Chori’ Allegations, Calls for EC Action

New Delhi: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday publicly supported party colleague and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of “vote chori” (vote theft), describing them as serious concerns that require urgent attention from the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Tharoor’s endorsement marks a rare moment of alignment with the Congress high command, which has often viewed him with suspicion for his occasional praise of the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His earlier commendation of PM Modi for Operation Sindoor, even as the party criticised the government over the ceasefire and US President Donald Trump’s claim of brokering it, had widened the gap between him and party leadership.

Rahul Gandhi, in a press conference lasting over an hour, accused the ECI of colluding with the BJP to manipulate elections and committing what he called “criminal fraud.” He claimed that the Congress had manually analysed voter lists and uncovered multiple irregularities.

According to Gandhi, these included duplication of names, use of invalid addresses, and fake entries with mismatched photographs. He cited the Mahadevapura Assembly segment in Bangalore Central as a key example, alleging that 100,250 votes were “stolen” there. He also claimed that Form 6 applications for new voter registrations showed minimal representation from the 18–23 age group, with most entries belonging to individuals aged in their 50s or even 90s.

“These are serious questions which must be seriously addressed in the interests of all parties and all voters. Our democracy is too precious to allow its credibility to be destroyed by incompetence, carelessness or worse, deliberate tampering,” Tharoor wrote on X, sharing a video of Gandhi explaining the alleged manipulations. He urged the ECI to act swiftly and keep the public informed.