"Haryana issue is being fabricated," Union Minister Kiren Rijiju slams Rahul Gandhi's Haryana vote theft allegation

New Delhi [India], November 5 (ANI): Union Minister Kiren Rijiju criticised Rahul Gandhi's claims of vote theft in Haryana on Wednesday. He alleged that the Haryana issue is being fabricated to divert attention from the Bihar elections.
During a press conference at the BJP headquarters, Rijiju emphasised that one has to accept both victory and defeat in a democracy.
"Now, to hide his failures, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi is once again holding a press conference. Voting is two days away in Bihar, but today, Rahul Gandhi was narrating the story of Haryana. This clearly shows that there is no issue left in Bihar, so the Haryana issue is being fabricated to divert attention...He (Rahul Gandhi) said that the Congress had won in the exit polls in Haryana. Even during the 2004 elections, exit polls and opinion polls were declaring victory for the BJP and NDA, but in the counting results, the NDA lost. We accepted the results and congratulated the UPA, but we did not abuse the Election Commission. In a democracy, one has to accept both victory and defeat. But when exit polls are in favour of Congress, he applauds, and when they go against, he abuses the media," said Rijiju.
The Union Minister stated that the Congress party in Haryana lost because its leaders were not actively working on the ground.

"During Haryana elections, Congress senior leader Kumari Selja herself had said that Congress wouldn't be able to win here, because its own leaders wanted to defeat the party. After that, a former Congress minister resigned and clearly stated that Congress lost in Haryana because its leaders themselves weren't working on the ground. State Congress president Rao Narendra Singh admitted that there is no coordination at the grassroots level in the Congress party, so how could Congress win? Their own leaders are saying that Congress lost because of itself, while Rahul Gandhi's claim that they lost due to stolen votes, who on earth would believe that?..." added Rijiju.
He further claimed that the Congress party has not filed a single case of fraud or violation of election rules.
"If the Congress party has not filed a single case of fraud or violation of election rules, then they should file a petition...His press address is an act of fraud in itself," said Rijiju.
Meanwhile, the sources within the Election Commission of India highlighted that there were zero appeals against the electoral rolls, with only 22 election petitions pending in the High Court for 90 assembly seats. They asked why INC polling agents did not object at polling stations if they suspected duplicate voters, whether Rahul Gandhi supports or opposes the SIR process that removes duplicates, dead, and shifted voters while verifying citizenship, and why INC's BLAs filed no claims or appeals during roll revisions to prevent multiple names.
The EC also questioned Rahul Gandhi's inference that duplicate votes were cast for the BJP when records show that they were actually cast for the INC, and noted that "House Number Zero" applies to areas where municipalities or panchayats have not assigned house numbers. Finally, the EC asked why no appeals were filed by INC during Bihar's SIR process from August 1 to October 15. The Chief Electoral Officer of Haryana also stated that the draft Electoral Rolls for the Haryana Assembly elections 2024 were published and shared with recognised political parties on August 2, 2024.
Earlier, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi alleged that one in eight voters in Haryana are fake, claiming large-scale voter fraud and pointing to unexplained discrepancies between postal and booth votes. Just a day before the first phase of the Bihar polls, he said his team has clear proof that around 25 lakh voters in the state are either duplicate, nonexistent, or manipulated.
While addressing a press conference, 'H files', Rahul Gandhi said, "...We have crystal clear proof that 25 lakh voters (in Haryana) are fake, that they either don't exist or they are duplicate or are designed in a way for anybody to vote...1 in 8 voters in Haryana are fake, that's 12.5%..."
"We have the word 'H' Files, and this is about how an entire state has been stolen...We suspected that this was not happening in individual constituencies, but rather at the state and national levels. We received numerous complaints in Haryana from our candidates, stating that something was not working correctly. Their predictions all went upside down. We had experienced this in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra but we decided to zoom into Haryana and go into details about what had happened there," he said. (ANI)