As the Bihar Assembly elections draw closer, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has chosen to revive an old strategy—questioning the credibility of the Election Commission. Fully aware that his party struggles to win the trust of voters in the state, Gandhi has intensified his criticism of the poll body by presenting claims that have already been proven misleading. This tactic of casting aspersions on the Election Commission and the electoral process has been part of Gandhi’s political playbook for years.

Whenever his party faces defeat, he falls back on allegations against the election machinery. This time, anticipating another setback, the Congress scion has started the narrative even before the elections.

The controversy arose as Bihar’s Specific Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise—a routine scrutiny of voter rolls—entered its final stage. On 28th August, Rahul Gandhi shared a post from the official Congress account on X (formerly Twitter). In the post, he alleged that the voter list in Nidani village, under Booth No. 161 of Barachatti Assembly constituency in Gaya district, had been manipulated. Gandhi claimed that “947 voters were registered at the same house address.” He further insisted that “hundreds of electors in the village, which has more than 100 houses, had the same house address as House No. 6.”

However, these allegations were promptly rejected by the Chief Election Officer (CEO) of Bihar. Video evidence released by the District Election Officer-cum-District Magistrate of Gaya directly contradicted Gandhi’s accusations. In the videos, villagers themselves confirmed that their names were on the voter list and that they had been voting regularly.

The DEO clarified that in many villages of Bihar, official house numbers are not allotted. To address this, the Election Commission assigns symbolic or notional house numbers so that all eligible residents are included in the voter roll. To substantiate this, the DEO shared video statements of four voters from Nidani village. They explained that their families had been part of the electoral rolls since 1987, and none of the genuine voters had ever been excluded. They stressed that their votes were real and consistently counted in elections.

The villagers expressed satisfaction with the SIR process and openly dismissed Rahul Gandhi’s claim as baseless. According to them, the narrative of a “rigged voter list” was false and misleading. The Election Commission reaffirmed that symbolic numbering does not make voters fake, nor does it mean that rolls are tampered with.

This episode adds to a long list of instances where Rahul Gandhi’s allegations against the Election Commission have collapsed under scrutiny. Earlier this month, he had accused the poll body of colluding with the BJP to manipulate elections in Maharashtra and Karnataka, claiming that “vote chori of lakhs of votes” had taken place. He pointed to entries in voter rolls where several voters had “house number 0” or the same house address.

But once again, the Election Commission provided clarification. It explained that “people who do not have specific house numbers, which is common in rural areas, and those who are homeless are assigned ‘house number 0’ by the ECI to ensure they are not excluded from the voter list.” Similarly, multiple voters sharing the same house number is common in cases of joint families or rented accommodations.

Through this clarification, the poll body not only debunked the latest claim from Gandhi but also highlighted his repeated attempts to spread confusion about the electoral process.