Overview
- At a press conference unveiling the 'H-files', Rahul Gandhi claimed roughly one in eight entries on Haryana’s rolls were fake, duplicate or fabricated and cited a stock photo he says was used 22 times in Rai.
- He argued Congress lost eight seats by a combined 22,779 votes and pointed to an unusual divergence between postal ballots and booth results in the 2024 assembly election.
- The Election Commission called the allegations baseless, noted no appeals were filed after final rolls were published, and the Haryana CEO asked Gandhi to submit an affidavit as a step toward legal action.
- EC officials said parties had opportunities to object during roll revisions, referenced existing election petitions in Rai and Hodal, and defended SIR as a process to purge duplicates and ineligible entries.
- Field reporting by The Indian Express found addresses flagged for having dozens or hundreds of voters were large multi-house plots and identified women whose roll photos were incorrect but who said they voted with valid IDs.