Varanasi: Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai on Sunday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of manipulating the 2024 Varanasi Lok Sabha election to secure Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s victory, claiming it was a case of “winning through vote theft” rather than a genuine public mandate.
Addressing a press conference at the Congress office in Varanasi, Rai alleged that the election was marred by large-scale voter list manipulation, misuse of government machinery, and the inclusion of fake voters. “The truth is that he did not win, but was made to win. The 2024 Kashi election has made a mockery of the democratic process,” Rai said.
Rai himself had contested against PM Modi in the Varanasi seat. According to Rai, early trends showed Modi trailing in the initial rounds of counting, but as counting progressed, the results shifted dramatically. Ultimately, Rai lost to the Prime Minister by a margin of around 1.5 lakh votes — a margin he claims was secured through “ballot theft and manipulation.”
Rai claimed that a voter named ‘Vishal Singh’ was listed in both Karnataka and Kashi electoral rolls and cast his ballot in Tulsi Pur, under the Cantonment Assembly constituency. “There are thousands of such bogus voters, mostly BJP-RSS workers, who travel to different areas to vote multiple times,” he alleged.
Rai said the BJP had ironically launched a toll-free number and website to report fake voters, but the administration “acted dishonestly” to ensure the PM’s victory. He referred to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s claim that there was concrete evidence of fake names being added to voter lists in Varanasi and that people from outside the state were brought in to vote.
Rai alleged that the government prepared fake voter lists and deployed RSS workers to manipulate results. He further claimed that the entire operation took place under the Election Commission’s watch.