Sonipat (Haryana): Vinod has been a distraught man ever since his wife, Guniya, passed away nearly four years ago, leaving behind their three children. “She suffered a brain haemorrhage on 1 March 2022 and died. We’re still struggling to come to terms with her loss,” said the 37-year-old Murthal resident, standing below her garlanded portrait.
On Wednesday, a press conference held by Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi unexpectedly brought the family into public eye. The Congress leader displayed a segment of the voter list from Haryana’s Rai assembly constituency, claiming that the photograph of a Brazilian woman had been used for 22 different voters, including Guniya.
At Vinod’s modest home, located about six kilometres from NH-44, where gleaming dhabas bustle with activity round the clock, all of Guniya’s documents are carefully stacked in an old suitcase.
One by one, Vinod takes out her documents—the death certificate, Aadhaar card, and the voter ID that he says she used to cast her vote in the 2019 assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The voter ID, which bears the same EPIC number as the one printed against her name in the voter list shown by Gandhi, also carries her correct photograph.
“We don’t know how that photo (Brazilian woman’s) got paired with her name in the voter list after her death,” he said. Other than Guniya’s family, ThePrint has established contact with nine of the 22 women, either directly, or through their family members or neighbours, and found that Gandhi’s revelations warrant a deeper probe by the authorities.
Consider this: Three women, found living at the addresses listed against their names in the voters’ list, claim they faced no difficulty while voting despite the photo mismatch.
One complains that she voted, but someone created a duplicate ID in her name. Two have relocated elsewhere, but insist they returned to vote. Another two who relocated claim not to have voted, and in one case, villagers claim the woman allegedly changed her identity after leaving her first husband.
“They have primarily targeted women who moved away from their registered addresses. In Haryana, most traditional women in villages still keep their faces shrouded in public. That is the case even during voting day. It is entirely possible that votes were fraudulently cast against the names of women who either died or shifted elsewhere,” claimed Rakesh Sauda, a Sonipat-based Haryana Congress leader involved with Gandhi’s groundwork on the issue.
Among the six women who purportedly voted in the October 2024 Haryana assembly elections—their names paired with the photo of the Brazilian woman on the voters’ list— are Pinky and Munish Devi of Sonipat’s Machroli village, Sweety and Manjit of Kheri Manajat village, and Anju and Bimla of Akbarpur Barot.
While Pinky said she voted without any difficulty using her Aadhaar card, Munish’s brother-in-law Sunil Antil claimed she lives in Sonipat town, but did return and vote. Both claimed that their voter IDs had mismatched photos, but not that of the Brazilian woman.
Sweety, a resident of Kheri Manajat, also said she did not face any difficulty while voting. Her voter ID, issued on 19 December, 2012, bears her own photograph.
Manjit, who lives in the same village, was away at a wedding when ThePrint visited Friday, but her brother-in-law Sunil said she had voted and showed her voter ID which, too, carries the correct photograph.
Anju, a voter from Akbarpur Barota village, said she has since moved elsewhere, but did return to cast her vote during the assembly elections. Her brother-in-law is a ward member affiliated with the BJP. Speaking to ThePrint Friday, Anju maintained she had voted, though her sister Rekha had told media persons a day earlier that Anju had, in fact, not voted.
Bimla, a resident of the same village, whose name also features in the list shared by Gandhi, said that while she had voted, there was a duplicate voter ID with her name in a neighbouring polling booth. Her son Pradeep endorsed Gandhi’s allegation and demanded an inquiry, while her husband Ramesh Kumar dismissed the charge.
Family members of Saroj, who is also registered as a voter in Akbarpur Barota, said she moved to Bhiwani several years ago, and has not voted in the village since. They express surprise over the fact that her name remains on the voter list, and that too paired with the photo of a Brazilian woman.
At Murthal, asked about one Rashmi whose name figures in the voter list of the village paired with the Brazilian woman’s photo, villagers said she was allegedly in hiding after leaving her husband and marrying into another family. In Nahari, where Satyavati—another one of the 22 women in Gandhi’s list—is registered, villagers say she no longer lives there.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)