'It was just a small cracker, had no noise or energy': Devendra Fadnavis on Rahul Gandhi's 'H' files expose

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said that Rahul Gandhi's claims of vote rigging in Haryana elections were nothing but just a small cracker. Fadnavis claimed that Gandhi is now pursuing an agenda to not let democracy function properly in India. 

On Wednesday, Rahul Gandhi claimed the 'H' Files reveal large-scale voter irregularities in Haryana. 

"What Rahul Gandhi called a 'Hydrogen bomb' was not a bomb at all. It was just a small cracker. It had no noise or energy. Rahul Gandhi is now pursuing an agenda to not let democracy function properly. Rahul Gandhi's agenda matches the agenda of extenal forces. All these external forces are striving to erode faith in India's democracy and constitution," the Maharashtra CM said. 

He further claimed that these "external forces" are creating a false atmosphere and narrative which questions the constitutional institutions in the country. 

"Rahul Gandhi is fueling this narrative. What could be more tragic than this? While Rahul Gandhi attempts to view our army through caste lines, I don't understand who he is working for. He raises a question mark on the army, the Constitution and the system established by the Constitution's institutions... Whose agenda is Rahul Gandhi pursuing? It's becoming clear now."

What exactly did Rahul Gandhi claim?

At a press conference on Wednesday, the Gandhi scion alleged vote rigging in Haryana elections in 2024. "We have the word 'H' Files and this is about how an entire state has been stolen. We suspected that this is not happening in individual constituencies, but at the state level and at the national level," Rahul said.

Congress received many complaints from candidates in Haryana and decided to examine the details. "We got a lot of complaints in Haryana, from our candidates, that something was wrong and not working. Their predictions all went upside down. We had experienced this in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra but we decided to zoom into Haryana and go into details about what had happened there," he added.

According to Rahul Gandhi, "vote chori" happened in Haryana assembly elections to the tune of 25 lakhs under categories such as duplicate voters, invalid addresses, and bulk voters.

He said his team has "100 per cent" proof that around 25 lakh voters in Haryana are either duplicate, non-existent or manipulated. Rahul further alleged, "for the first time in history of Haryana was the postal votes were different from actual votes."

He questioned the Election Commission's methods, stating, "The Election Commission claims that those marked under house number zero are homeless people. However, when we verified on the ground, we found that many of these individuals were actually residing in their homes. This is not a mistake, nor is it about homeless citizens — the CEC is lying to the people of India."

Rahul Gandhi accused the poll body of not using available software to detect duplicate entries, saying, "We asked the ECI to run the software and identify voters with the same name and address, but they refused. The reason is clear — they are helping the BJP," he said.