As Rahul Gandhi goes on an ignorant rant about ‘fake votes’, a reminder of when Youth Congress workers were arrested by Kerala Police for using fake voter IDs
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been attacking the Election Commission of India (ECI), casting aspersions on the integrity of the poll body. However, on 7th August, the Gandhi scion crossed all limits and openly threatened the ECI officials with “consequences” if his party comes to power.
“Now, the Election Commission must provide us and the people of India with that information. Because if they don’t, there will be consequences. There will be consequences for every single polling officer involved in this, regardless of how senior or junior you are. One day, the opposition will come to power and then you’ll see what we do,” said Rahul Gandhi on Thursday, August 7.
This is not the first and possibly not the last time that Rahul Gandhi is raising suspicions about the ECI or the election process in state or general elections. He and his party often level such allegations after his party loses elections. In June 2025, Rahul Gandhi spread lies about the 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections after his party’s alliance lost, saying that the elections were rigged and were a “match fixing”.
However, before attacking the Election Commission and alleging EVM hacking, VVPAT tampering, illegally including additional votes in favour of the BJP, and what not, Rahul Gandhi should look within his own party.
Back in November 2023, three Youth Congress workers were arrested by Kerala Police for use of fake voter ID cards during the organisational polls. In this election, Youth Congress leader Rahul Mamkottathil won. He was later interrogated by the police. The police had seized laptops, mobile phones and fake election photo identification cards from the possession of the accused Youth Congress workers.
On the direction of Chief Electoral Officer of the state, a case was registered against Youth Congress workers identified as Abhi Vikram, Feny and Binil Binu. They were booked under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 (Using a forged document as genuine). The police had said that the accused had allegedly used a mobile application developed by Youth Congress leader Jaison, for creating the fake IDs.
In January 2024, Jaison, who served as a vice-president of the Youth Congress in East Eleri Mandalam in the northernmost district of Kasaragod, surrendered before the police. He was later granted bail by the court. The Youth Congress worker is a B. tech graduate in electronics.
“He is the one who developed the app with the support of a staff at the computer centre. The fake ID cards were made using this application,” the police said back then.
The police had recovered 24 fake voter ID cards during the raids, with some being in the name of Tamil film star Ajith. Back then, the Kerala BJP had said that top leadership of Congress’s Kerala unit, including KC Venugopal and V.D. Satheesan was aware of the fraud being committed by its workers.
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