FILE PHOTO: Rahul Gandhi, a senior leader of India's main opposition Congress Party, speaks to the media during a press conference in New Delhi, India, February 7, 2025. REUTERS/Sahiba Chawdhary/File Photo
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said on Wednesday India's electoral system suffers from "serious discrepancies" and he pledged to continue challenging its integrity through public mobilisation and potentially the courts.
Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that controls the main opposition Congress party, last week accused authorities of manipulating voter rolls by adding fake names in the 2024 general election and other recent polls.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, which performed below expectations in the national vote and had to rely on allies to form a government, went on to win several state elections with relative ease.
The BJP and the Election Commission have both denied the rigging charges, which are rare in the world's most populous democracy of 1.42 billion people.
"There are serious discrepancies in the election system, and we will diligently keep exposing them,” Gandhi told a group of reporters citing research conducted by Congress party colleagues. However, he said he aimed to preserve public trust in democratic institutions.
"We do not want to discredit the election process of India, so we are doing it slowly and deliberately," he said at his official bungalow in central Delhi, where portraits of his father and grandmother — both former prime ministers — hung from the walls.
Gandhi said the party's strategy was focused on building public pressure. "We mainly want to challenge the Election Commission through the people but could eventually go to court."
"If elections are rigged, no amount of cadre mobilisation will work. The game we are playing is rigged," Gandhi said, when asked by Reuters if the opposition alliance could oust Modi in the next national election in 2029.
His comments come ahead of a closely contested state election in Bihar.
“The Bihar election is looking very close, but we are rising and they are declining,” he said.
Bihar, one of India's most politically important states, goes to polls by November. It is ruled by an alliance of Modi's party but according to a recent survey by the VoteVibe agency, the opposition has an edge largely because of a lack of jobs.
(Reporting by Krishna N. Das in New Delhi; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
