Rahul Gandhi went after CEC Gyanesh Kumar and the Modi government over alleged electoral irregularities, linking “vote chori” to “kanoon chori.” His argument: if votes were stolen, the laws and institutional changes passed by lawmakers elected on the back of those votes would also be illegal.
Published: September 24, 2026, 6:17 PM IST
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Congress leader Rahul GandhiScreengrab/@INCIndia
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday renewed his call for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, while reiterating his earlier “vote chori” allegations.
The leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha cited states like Haryana, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, questioning how the anti-incumbency in these states had “disappeared.”
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Gandhi’s address came after an investigative report from The Indian Express newspaper stated that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi recorded objections to decisions taken in the commission’s name at least 14 times over 10 months.
Gandhi calls Gyanesh Kumar to ‘turn approver’
Praising the two Election Commissioners for raising objections, Gandhi called it a “wise thing” to do and said he appreciated their standHe further urged Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to turn approver, linking the call to safeguarding democracy.
“There are going to be consequences to thisWe are not going to let democracy be destroyedPeople responsible will be punished,” Gandhi said.
“The two ECs have done a wise thingI appreciate itMr (Gyanesh) Kumar should turn approverThat would be an act of nationalismWe know what has happened and we’ll reveal it,” he added.
Rahul Gandhi questions the election system
Gandhi said the matter was not limited to the reported differences within the Election Commission, arguing that what he described as problems with the vote had wider implications.
“Haryana has changed governments from one party to another for 50 yearsSuddenly, anti-incumbency disappearsMaharashtra swings, and suddenly it disappearsUttar Pradesh swings between the Samajwadi Party and BSP, and that disappears tooMadhya Pradesh, it disappearsGujarat, it disappears,” he said.
“This has been a fundamental question for usWe can understand the popularity of a person, and the performance of a government, but we cannot understand how anti-incumbency disappears,” he added.
Gandhi then compared the absence of anti-incumbency, as he described it, with political systems that are not democratic.
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“Anti-incumbency does not exist in Saddam Hussein’s IraqIt does not exist in North KoreaThere is no democracy on this planet where anti-incumbency does not exist,” he saidHe then linked the vote to the Constitution, laws and institutions.
“From the vote, which is supposed to be protected by the Election Commission, our Constitution gets its powerFrom the Constitution, our laws are made, and from our laws emerge our institutionsThis is a chain,” Gandhi said.
“If the vote has been destroyed, then our constitution has been destroyedIf our constitution has been destroyed, our laws are illegalIf our laws are illegal, our institutions are meaningless,” he addedGandhi said the issue represented a wider challenge to the electoral system.
“The central question here is this is not just an attack on the vote; this is an attack on the idea, the basic infrastructure, and the expression of every single Indian person,” he said“We have been saying it again and again and again that there is a problem with the vote,” Gandhi added.
