Congress deploys 'vote rakshaks' to check 'vote chori': All about Rahul Gandhi's pilot project

While Rahul Gandhi is the face of the campaign, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is said to be monitoring the programme closely.

Congress has launched a pilot programme to deploy “booth rakshaks” or “vote rakshaks” in select Lok Sabha constituencies, in line with Rahul Gandhi’s “vote chori” campaign against alleged irregularities in electoral rolls. The initiative aims to train party workers to detect wrongful voter additions or deletions, track duplication, and file objections with the Election Commission.

According to The Indian Express, the party has formed a five-member team that has already begun visiting five constituencies — Jaipur Rural and Alwar in Rajasthan, Janjgir–Champa in Chhattisgarh, Morena in Madhya Pradesh, and Bansgaon in Uttar Pradesh. These are seats where Congress lost narrowly in 2024. “The team is training the local leadership on how to catch vote chori; it is going through the electoral rolls of each booth in the constituencies it is visiting,” said an AICC source, as per The Indian Express.

ThePrint reported a slightly different list of targeted seats: Jaipur Rural, Alwar, Kanker (Chhattisgarh), Morena, and Basgaon (Uttar Pradesh). Here, one vote rakshak is to be appointed for every 20 polling booths, translating to nearly 100 volunteers per Lok Sabha seat. “Since voter lists are updated almost every one or two years during local body or assembly polls or some kind of elections, we want to build awareness from now itself, as the issue has gained urgency,” a party functionary told ThePrint.

The rakshaks are being trained to use Forms 6, 7, and 8 — which deal with the inclusion, deletion, and correction of voter names. “Local leaders are being trained on the use of Forms 6, 7 and 8 in the electoral process. It is a two-pronged approach – training the local leadership and also keeping an eye on irregularities in voter lists, deletions and additions,” another source told The Indian Express.

आज जयपुर ग्रामीण लोकसभा की झोटवाडा़ विधानसभा में वोट-चोरी के खिलाफ चलाए जा रहे अभियान के सन्दर्भ में वोट रक्षकों की कार्यशाला आयोजित की गई।#AnilChopra #JaipurRural @RahulGandhi @kcvenugopalmp @priyankagandhi @kharge @SachinPilot @GovindDotasra @ashokgehlot51 @TikaRamJullyINC… pic.twitter.com/0MAR2diPEG

— 𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗟 𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗣𝗥𝗔 (@AnilChopra_) September 12, 2025

The training sessions, ThePrint reported, involve four presentations: what vote chori is, how to stop it, use of official documents, and the role of vote rakshaks. These volunteers, often drawn from the district units, will not be paid but will be supervised by state functionaries. They are expected to scrutinise electoral rolls and raise queries on irregularities. A local leader in Madhya Pradesh described the exercise as “somewhat similar to the panna pramukh concept introduced by the BJP, which also created a buzz among their party cadre.”

In Jaipur Rural, where Congress candidate Anil Chopra lost to BJP’s Rao Rajendra Singh by 1,615 votes, 38 booth rakshaks have already been appointed. “We are appointing these booth rakshaks so that they can track irregularities in electoral rolls and bring it to the party’s notice. We are also training the local leadership on the different ways in which vote chori has been done,” Chopra told The Indian Express.

The party lost Alwar by 48,282 votes, Janjgir–Champa by 60,000, Morena by 52,530 and Bansgaon by just 3,150 votes in 2024. A senior functionary quoted by ThePrint said the choice of these seats was deliberate: “The decision to focus on these five Lok Sabha seats was intended to send out a message that the Congress might have won them had booth rakshaks been in place earlier.”

While Rahul Gandhi is the face of the campaign, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is said to be monitoring the programme closely. ThePrint reported that she finalised the list of trainers, which includes Anil Yadav, Pradeep Narwal and Mazin Husain from Uttar Pradesh.

At a recent press conference, Rahul Gandhi accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of shielding “vote thieves” who have “destroyed Indian democracy.” He also presented alleged evidence of irregularities in Karnataka and Maharashtra. A Congress leader quoted by The Indian Express said: “We are hopeful that as Rahul Gandhi keeps showing evidence of vote chori, people will become aware and start asking questions; it can even become a mass movement.”

A senior MP, however, struck a note of caution. Speaking to ThePrint, he said: “It is a good initiative on paper, but scaling it across all 545 Lok Sabha seats will not be easy. In Congress, candidates often rely on their own core teams for booth management, and whether these teams will heed the vote rakshaks remains to be seen.”