Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has stirred a new political controversy after releasing a video that he claims captures him meeting “dead voters” in Bihar — a satirical jab at the Election Commission of India (ECI) over alleged irregularities in voter lists.
On Wednesday, Gandhi posted the clip on X (formerly Twitter) with a sharp caption: “I have had many interesting experiences in life, but never got the chance to have tea with ‘dead people’. Thank you, Election Commission, for this unique experience!” The statement was accompanied by footage showing him conversing with residents who allege they were incorrectly marked as deceased in official electoral records.
In the video, Gandhi greets the group with mock astonishment: “I have heard that you people are no longer alive. The Election Commission has killed you.” He then questions them about how they learned of their “deaths.” One resident explains that they discovered the error after checking the official voter list. When asked about the scale of the issue, another man claims that in a single panchayat alone, there are at least 50 similar cases.
The individuals in the video further allege that in the constituency of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, many living voters have been wrongly categorised as dead by the ECI’s published rolls. They assert they have written proof of these errors and recount standing in the Supreme Court for six hours in an attempt to safeguard their voting rights. Some even say they travelled long distances to meet political leaders and raise awareness about the issue, urging parties to unite to “save Bihar” from what they describe as electoral malpractice.
The release of this video comes at a time when the Opposition, led prominently by Rahul Gandhi, is intensifying criticism of the Election Commission, accusing it of mishandling the voter list and enabling what they call “voter theft” in Bihar. The controversy is tied to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the poll-bound state.
Gandhi has been vocal on similar issues in other states as well. On August 7, he alleged that fake names were being inserted into voter lists and attempted to illustrate his claims using the Karnataka electoral rolls as an example. Specifically, he claimed there was a ‘bhayankar chori’ (massive theft) of votes in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment of the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency — a charge that the Election Commission has strongly denied.
The poll body has consistently dismissed Gandhi’s and other Opposition leaders’ allegations, labelling them as misleading and without evidence. Despite this, the row over Bihar’s voter lists is expected to become another flashpoint in the heated political climate leading up to the state elections.
