75 Saal Ka Voter Farzi Raaj: Seemanchal Se Raisina Tak

From reporting smuggling rings in the Gulf to decoding smuggling of votes in Bihar, my journey as a journalist-turned-advocate has exposed one common truth: power always finds a shortcut — and in India, that shortcut has been the voter list

India’s Electoral Fraud Didn’t Start with Technology — It Started with Congress. And It Started in Bihar.

We talk about EVM hacking today. But rewind to the early decades of Indian democracy, and you’ll find a cruder but equally devastating tool: booth capturing. And it wasn’t born in Bengal or UP — it was born in Bihar, in the smoke-filled badlands of Begusarai.

The pioneer? None other than Kam Dev Singh, a dreaded smuggler and staunch Congress loyalist, who turned booth capturing into an election-day ritual. His mission? Keep the Communist Party of India (CPI) out at any cost. Back then, CPI was not just an ideology — it was a mass movement in the Begusarai-Barauni industrial belt. But Congress had other plans. They saw the red wave as a threat — and they crushed it with muscle.

Kam Dev Singh, operating with full political backing, stormed booths, stuffed ballots, terrorized opponents, and institutionalized electoral violence. And the system? It looked the other way. Why? Because CPI was unbeatable on merit, but not on manipulated numbers. The Congress party needed Kam Devs across India — and it got them.

Fast forward to today, and the irony is almost laughable. The same Congress and CPI, once blood rivals in Bihar, now share stage space with Lalu Yadav’s RJD — the man who, in his rise to power, demolished both.

Let that sink in:

“Congress created booth capturing.

CPI was its first victim. RJD finished them both”.

And today, they call themselves a “secular alliance.”

Seemanchal: The New Laboratory of Voter Fraud

But the story doesn’t end in Begusarai. It moves east — into Seemanchal, where voter list manipulation is no longer about booths but entire demographics.

Districts like Kishanganj, Araria, Katihar, and Purnea have become strongholds not through political work but through voter engineering — mass enrolment of undocumented settlers, fake ration cards, multiple entries, and strategic deletions of opposing caste blocs.

And every time there’s a push for verification, these same parties cry “conspiracy”.

“Jo farzi ke bal par jeet rahe hain, unhe asli voter se dar lagta hai.”

My Battle with the System in MP

As a journalist, I saw it happen again in Madhya Pradesh. In 2001, while working for Navabharat and Central Chronicle, I reported how Digvijay Singh’s Congress won despite mass public anger. There was no electricity, no jobs, no hope — but still, they won. Why? Because they had already won — on paper.

I uncovered fake voter lists, ghost entries, and whole colonies that only existed on voting day. My exposé forced the Election Commission into action. Nine senior IAS officers were suspended in one night, and a new voter list was created. BJP won — but I lost. My newsroom punished me. Congress general secretary Ambika Soni used to hand-pick stories for publication. I was blacklisted for telling the truth. BJP didn’t reward me either — not that I was expecting it. My reward was justice.

Delhi’s Jhuggi Formula & the Purvanchali Betrayal

Back in Delhi, leaders like HKL Bhagat, Tytler, and Sajjan Kumar used jhuggi clusters the same way Kam Dev Singh used booths: as machines to manufacture votes. Entire settlements popped up overnight, votes handed out in exchange for loyalty, and Purvanchalis were kept out — their documents “not enough,” their names “missing.”

We fought this. We demanded representation. We ensured the voter list changed.

But when the tide turned and AAP swept Delhi, the real soldiers of this fight — us — were left in the shadows. They cashed in. We were written off.

Now in 2025, When Bihar Begins Voter List Verification… Guess Who’s Protesting?

The same parties who milked the system for decades. The same parties that once captured booths are now crying about the digital cleansing of the voter list. Why? Because they know the ghosts will be exorcised. The voter list they fed for decades will finally be audited.

And they’re scared.

“Loktantra ke naam pe farzi raaj banaane wale log, asli raaj se darte hain.”

Truth Bombs to Remember:

*Congress invented booth capturing in Bihar, not the mafia.*

*Seemanchal is today’s vote bank lab, run on illegal names.*

*AAP rose on a cleaned list, but the Purvanchalis who fought for it were sidelined.*

*Voter list verification is not communal — it’s constitutional.*

(The author is a journalist and Advocate, Supreme Court of India)