RAJURA
Rajura, an assembly constituency in Maharashtra’s far-eastern Chandrapur district, is suddenly in the spotlight after Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP of vote theft in the assembly elections last year. Rajura witnessed a close contest between the Congress’s sitting MLA Subhash Dhote and the BJP’s Deorao Bhongle. Dhote lost by 3,054 votes—a defeat, he alleges, was caused by the addition of more than 18,000 “bogus votes” between the 2024 Lok Sabha and assembly polls.
THE WEEK had visited Rajura a week before Gandhi spoke to all stakeholders and raised the issue nationally. Dhote said Rajura had 3,13,600 voters during the Lok Sabha polls; but during the assembly elections held five months later, the number jumped to 3,32,131—an increase of around 19,000 voters. After the party found out that more than 1,500 voters were registered in a single day, it put its activists to work. As many as 6,853 of the new voters were found to be suspicious. After the party filed a complaint, the Election Commission struck off all 6,853 names from the list.
“We found out that in Jivati town 135 votes were rejected at booth number 192,” Dhote told THE WEEK. “When our party inquired about these 135 voters, local people could identify only around 15 voters. Then we went to Nandgaon, where nine voters had been added, none of whom was found to be in the village.”
Dhote said similar anomalies were found across villages in the constituency. In Bakhardi, 79 voters were rejected. One of them was Gangadhar Waghmare, a genuine voter. In Rajura city, as many as 3,195 additions were found to be bogus. The number of voters struck off from the voter list was 1,122 in Gadchandur, 662 in Korpana, and 407 in Lakhmapur.
“Even after 6,853 bogus voters were struck off from the list, we lost by just over 3,000 votes. This is why we say that vote theft has happened with the blessings of the EC,” Dhote said. “The [complaint] about this wrongdoing was registered by Omprakash Gond, tehsildar of Rajura, on October 19, 2024. It has been almost a year, but there has been no progress in the investigation.”
According to Dhote, the mobile numbers or IP addresses used to register these bogus voters remain unknown. With 6,853 names removed from the list, he said, there is no guarantee that all newly-added voters were genuine. “That is why we call this vote chori,” Dhote said. “My constituency is close to Telangana and Chhattisgarh. All bogus voters were from Telangana and Chhattisgarh. There were hardly any Marathi names in it.”
During the counting process, he said, Bhongle was in third place for the first 12 to 13 rounds, with Dhote and Wamanrao Chatap of the Shetkari Sanghatana leading the contest. “After the 13th round, Bhongle moved to the second position and then took the lead in the final rounds,” he said.
The Congress, Dhote added, led in postal ballots as well. “In some villages, Bhongle was not even allowed to campaign,” he said.
Dhote alleged that the police and flying squads seized Rs61 lakh in cash—well above the expenditure limit of Rs40 lakh—from Bhongle’s workers. An NCR (non-cognisable record) was registered. “There has been no progress in this probe as well,” he said. “Shouldn’t Bhongle have been disqualified after this seizure?”
Arun Nimje, president of the Gadchandur unit of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar), said the BJP won the assembly polls only because of bogus voting. “Bogus voting happened not just in Rajura, but also in Ghuggus—part of Chandrapur assembly segment won by the BJP’s Kishor Jorgewar. How is it possible that 119 bogus voters had a single house in Ghuggus as their address? The BJP rigged the Maharashtra elections with the help of the EC,” he said.
In Ghuggus, Congress leader Raji Reddy showed THE WEEK the house where 119 voters were registered. “The house owner, Sachin Bandurkar, told us that he lives there with his wife and two children. The family has only two voters,” he said. “The address also wasn’t used as a landmark by election officials—we checked around in other houses, but none of the names was found to be there.”
Reddy also alleged that votes of local Muslims, dalits and tribals have been deleted. “So the BJP added bogus votes, while deleting the votes of people who do not vote for them,” he said.
An associate of Reddy alleged that another house, numbered 100, had 2,270 voters registered. “Only one family lives there. We have sent three letters to election officials, but no action has been taken,” said Reddy.
When contacted, Bhongle denied all charges. “I pity the intellectual abilities of Congress leaders. Rahul Gandhi has defamed Rajura and insulted its voters,” he said. “When the Congress wins elections, EVMs (electronic voting machines) are fine; but when the BJP wins, they start talking about vote chori. This is hypocrisy.”
He said he had registered a complaint regarding bogus voters in October last year. “Please identify the culprits and take strict action, but why blame me? I am not a native of Rajura; my birthplace is Ghuggus. It is the biggest gram panchayat in Maharashtra, and I was its youngest sarpanch at 21. Then I became a panchayat samiti president, a zilla parishad president and, now, a legislator. People have seen my work over the last two decades.”
Regarding the seizure of Rs61 lakh, Bhongle said the money was not theirs—the police and the EC were still investigating it. “Please take action against me if they find out that the money belongs to us,” he said. The opposition just likes to level allegations without any proof. People of Rajura are firmly behind me.”
Keshav Upadhye, chief spokesperson for the BJP in Maharashtra, also said the vote theft allegations were false. “Rahul Gandhi is a master liar. We were the first to register the complaint about bogus voters on October 21, 2024,” he said. “If we wanted to engage in vote chori, why would we complain?”
In Rajura, said Upadhye, the victory margins in the 2014, 2019 and 2024 assembly elections were in the range of 2,500 to 3000 votes. “The BJP won 71,000 votes in all three elections; it is the Congress that has increased its votes by 9,000. I want to ask Rahul Gandhi: ‘Was this increase in votes because of vote chori?”
Chandrapur District Collector Vinay Gowda G.C. told THE WEEK that it was not the Congress or the BJP that first registered a complaint against bogus votes. “This first came to the notice of local poll officials, and then we promptly took action to reject those names,” he said. A first information report was registered on October 19, he said.
Chandrapur Superintendent of Police Mummakka Sudarshan said the investigation was ongoing. The Election Commission has been asked to furnish relevant information. “We are awaiting their response,” he said.