Rahul Gandhi said President Droupadi Murmu asked the Opposition to provide proof of alleged election malpractice after an INDIA bloc delegation demanded CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s removal, suspension of SIR, restoration of deleted voter names and a return to ballot paper voting.
President Droupadi Murmu asked the Opposition to provide evidence of alleged electoral malpractice, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said on Friday after a 10-member INDIA bloc delegation met her seeking the removal of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
Speaking after the meeting, Gandhi said the delegation had told the President that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Kumar had conspired to undermine Indian democracy. He claimed Murmu had not rejected the allegations but had asked the Opposition to substantiate them.
“She asked us to bring proof of election ‘chori’ (theft),” Gandhi said.
#WATCH | Delhi: After meeting the President, Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi says, “I sat in quite an unbelievable meeting. First, we took a memorandum to the President of India. In that memorandum, we clearly stated that the Prime Minister, HM Amit Shah, and CEC Gyanesh Kumar had conspired to destroy Indian democracy. The President in no way denied what we said, questioned what we said, or argued what we said. She accepted our statement and then told us that we needed to provide her with proof of ‘election chori’. I said that the evidence of ‘election chori’ is known to the entire country. State after state has been stolen. The 2024 election was stolen, and yet the President wants us to submit proof to her. This same group of people will be very happy to present the evidence of ‘election chori’ that we have collected to the President of India when she is ready to accept it…”
— ANI (@ANI) October 9, 2026
“The proof of election ‘chori’ is known to the whole country. State after state has been stolen. The 2024 election was stolen, and yet the President wants us to submit proof to her. We will happily take all the proof we have collected to her when she is ready to accept it,” he added.
Gandhi said he had expected the President to deny that electoral malpractice was taking place and affirm that India had a free and fair election system. He said he was “shocked and stunned” by what he described as her acceptance of the Opposition’s account. The President’s office did not immediately issue a statement on the meeting.
The delegation, led by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Gandhi, submitted a memorandum demanding Kumar’s removal, suspension of the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, restoration of names allegedly deleted from voter lists and a return to ballot paper voting.