Hodal / Haryana: Following Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi’s bombshell allegations of a large scale ‘vote theft’ in Haryana, a field investigation by The Indian Express tells a different story—one that contradicts Rahul Gandhi’s claims.
Citing example of ‘vote theft’ Rahul Gandhi said that a house in Palwal district’s Hodal had 66 voters and another 501, sending shock waves yesterday.
His another more shocking claim was the use of a stock photograph of a Brazilian national in Sonipat district’s Rai to cast votes 22 times at 10 booths, adding he said ‘She has got multiple names — Seema, Sweety, Saraswati, Rashmi, Vimla,’.
The Indian Express revealing what it found in Hodal said that ‘the two addresses are, in fact, large plots where multiple homes exist and multiple families reside’.
It is reported citing them that they had voted in the Assembly elections that Rahul Gandhi referred in the press conference yesterday.
Tracking down four of the women whose photos on the voter roll were of Brazilian model, the outlet reported that they voted without incident and unaware of Rahul’s claims.
At the press conference Rahul said: ‘In Hodal Assembly, we found 66 voters registered in a house belonging to a BJP zila parishad vice-chairperson, and 501 voters in a house which could not be found.’
Visiting the house 150 in Hodal’s Gudhrana village, the outlet reported that it belongs to BJP zila parishad vice-chairperson Umesh Gudhrana (40).
The voters Rahul Gandhi referred to as registered in the house number 150 are found to be Umesh Gudhrana’s extended family members.
Gudhrana’s uncle, Rajpal Gudhrana (60), and his brothers made it clear that voters Rahul Gandhi referred in the press conference are all relatives who live on the same plot of land.
“My father, along with his three brothers, shifted to Gudhrana from the nearby Siha village around 80 years ago, and all of them got married and started their families. We had 10 acres of land, where we used to stay on five acres and do farming on the rest. This is the oldest pucca house, built in 1986 – House Number 150,” Rajpal reportedly said.
Rajpal added individual houses were built on the five acres of land to accommodate increasing family members with all the houses getting same number.
Umesh Gudhrana reportedly said: ‘Four generations of our family live together. There is no question of vote theft. My voter ID was made in 2009, and whoever from my family gets a voter ID made, the BLO writes the address as House Number 150 only’.
Visiting House number 265 where Gandhi alleged 501 voters were registered, Indian Express reported quoting Kishni (72), one of the voters registered at the address, that her family has eight members.
Her husband Ram Sorout’s great-grandfather, she said, had 25-30 acres of land in the village, which eventually got divided and sold off.
Ram Sorout ‘s son Pawan (26) explained that on this piece land sits a total of 200 houses and three private schools with all voters getting 265 as their registered house number.
‘Before 1980, the whole piece of land was used for farming with little residential area, but as our family increased, many houses were built while many acres were sold,’ he reportedly said.
One of the voters who is not associated with Sorout family appearing in the voter list with the same house number is Shyamwati Singh (46).
In Rai a homemaker Sweety, whose photo alongside other three women is that of a Brazilian national, told the newspaper that she had not faced any issues voting in the assembly polls ‘I used my 2012 voter card and the slip they issued’.
Others the newspaper spoke to including Manjeet, 24, another such woman, Darshana Joon (54) who is in the list of 22, her daughter, Harsha (24) all said they voted without any incident.
Harsha, showing Joon’s 2019 voter ID said ‘We all voted recently, and I don’t recall any issue. Here, the photo is clearly wrong’.
A resident of Machhraula village identified as Pinki has an issue with her voter ID but ‘it had nothing to do with a Brazilian national’, the outlet reported, adding that her voter ID card did have the wrong photograph of another village resident.
She said she had returned the card to the BLO and is waiting for a new EPIC card but she voted twice using the voters’ slip and Aadhaar card.
The booth’s BLO Babita who was given the role a few months ago is not aware of the Brazilian national’s photo and the previous BLO identified as Sushila said she too was not aware of how the Brazilian national’s photo got on the rolls.