NEW DELHI — Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi launched a scathing attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI), accusing the poll panel of orchestrating a calculated method of "vote theft" following a controversial voter list revision in the national capital.

During a ground visit to the Bela Estate settlement located along the banks of the Yamuna River, Gandhi highlighted a glaring statistical anomaly: out of 728 registered residents living in the area, a staggering 727 names were struck off the electoral rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, leaving behind only a single active voter.

Interacting directly with the affected residents, Gandhi pointed out that these communities have lived in the area for decades, having previously exercised their franchise in both the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the 2025 Delhi assembly polls. Although their makeshift homes faced localized demolitions in 2023, the residents did not relocate and continue to reside on-site.

"I told the SDM over the phone: owning a house or not has no bearing on the right to vote. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar himself has stated that 'House Number 0' is designated for the homeless. Yet, the names of 727 people were deleted," Gandhi wrote in a post on social media. "This is not SIR—this is a method of vote theft. Those who already have the least are being stripped of their only source of power."

Directing his criticism towards the ECI leadership, the senior Congress leader asserted that while individual officials would eventually leave office, the institutional framework facilitating such widespread deletions would ultimately be held accountable.

The latest controversy has further intensified the political standoff between the opposition bloc and the election watchdog, with the Congress party ramping up scrutiny over transparency and voter disenfranchisement concerns across urban settlements.