The Election Commission fact-checked Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s charge of large-scale voter deletion in Bihar, after a viral video featuring a man named Subodh Kumar claiming that his name was struck off the rolls.

On Tuesday, Gandhi shared the video on social media, claiming the incident was part of a wider pattern of voter fraud alleged by his party and the Opposition. In the clip, Subodh Kumar alleged that his name had been removed from the draft electoral roll.

“What has happened with Subodh Kumar ji is happening with lakhs of people in Bihar. Vote theft is an attack on Bharat Mata, the people of Bihar will not allow this to happen,” Gandhi posted on X.

In its rebuttal, the Election Commission said Subodh Kumar’s claim was “baseless and false,” noting that his name had never appeared on the rolls in the first place.

According to the district administration in Nawada, Subodh Kumar’s name is not recorded in either the current electoral roll or the list of deletions. Officials said he was present when the draft list was pasted at his polling station and even signed the attendance register. They also released a photograph of him at the booth.

The EC said Subodh Kumar had not submitted Form-6 or the required declaration (Annexure-D) during the revision exercise, and therefore could not be added to the voter list.

The poll body stressed that Kumar had neither filed a claim nor an objection after the release of the 2025 draft voter list.

“In the future, if he submits Form-6 and the necessary declaration as per the rules, his name will be included in the electoral roll,” Bihar’s Chief Electoral Officer clarified in a post on X.

This is not the first time the poll body has countered Gandhi’s “vote chori” narrative. Prior to this, he cited the case of a woman, Ranju Devi, who alleged her family’s names had been deleted.

However, Ranju Devi retracted her charge, claiming that she and her family had been misled by local officials. The EC also issued a clarification that all their names were present on the voter rolls.

Gandhi has been leading a ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ across Bihar to highlight what he calls attempts to disenfranchise voters ahead of state elections. The EC, however, has defended the ongoing revision of rolls as necessary since the process was overdue since 2004, and that many ineligible persons had managed to obtain voter cards, while some held multiple cards in different constituencies.

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