In Goa, Congress finds most ‘secular’ model of voter fraud; also most space-saving

The “vote theft” revelations making headlines across India have now found their foothold in Goa too, where opposition leaders claim the state’s electoral rolls are being manipulated on a worrying scale.

What began as a local probe has added heft to the national debate on electoral integrity, with cases emerging of entire clusters of non-residents registered at single addresses, properties too small to house their official occupants, and phantom voters linked to bars and abandoned buildings.

In Marcaim constituency, House No. 24/B at Ramnathi has become a symbol of the alleged malpractice. Records show 119 voters from multiple religions and castes supposedly living under one roof — a statistical impossibility, say critics, unless by political design.

Opposition figures allege the listing has been engineered to benefit the ruling dispensation, with the booth-level officer (BLO) accused of wilful negligence. In a scathing jibe, they suggested he deserves a “President’s medal” for managing to secure such a model instance of “secularism” in a single household.

The pattern extends far beyond Marcaim. In Seraulim, Benaulim, advocate Radharao Gracias has filed a complaint with the Election Commission, alleging that 100 non-local voters are fraudulently registered at just two addresses.

One property, which also operates as a bar, allegedly lists 80 voters from across India, while another property owned by the same person is linked to 20 more names. Gracias says these irregularities were reported to local officials in July 2025 but remain unaddressed.

Investigation by local news channel Herald TV, conducted with Congress’ Santa Cruz block president John Nazareth and joint secretary Edwin Vaz, has further exposed 26 non-Goan names on the voter list at House No. 404/7, owned by Shalan Hatange.

Of these, 15 reportedly voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

As part of the ‘Vote Chori’ (vote theft) campaign, the Congress team visited Bamonbhat in Santa Cruz, gathering video evidence to back their claims.

Perhaps the most striking case emerged in Part 23, Bamonbhat, where a 32-square-metre house (paying just Rs 30 in annual house tax) is officially the address of 28 registered voters with seven different surnames.

The genuine residents said they were unaware of these phantom entries until Congress workers uncovered the anomaly. At least 15 of the fake voters are believed to have cast their ballot in the 2022 Assembly polls.

Local Congress leaders say these discoveries reveal serious flaws in voter registration procedures, particularly in constituencies with high migrant populations, where duplicate or fictitious entries are easier to slip through. They allege that forged documents and fabricated addresses are being used to swell voter rolls, tilting electoral outcomes.

The Election Commission’s Goa office has pledged to step up verification in high-risk constituencies through field checks, public appeals for voluntary deletion of bogus entries, and possible legal action against offenders. But the Opposition is pressing for immediate, transparent corrective measures, warning that the credibility of upcoming elections is at risk.

The national spotlight on voter fraud has intensified since Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged in a 7 August press conference that more than 1 lakh votes were “stolen” in Karnataka’s Mahadevapura assembly constituency alone during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, sharing instances of five different modus operandi adopted.

The Congress party’s six-month review of the rolls reportedly found over 40,000 fake or invalid addresses — some with “0” as their house number, or even places that simply do not exist — and more than 10,000 “bulk voters” registered at implausibly ‘shared’ locations.

Opposition leaders in Goa insist the parallels are too strong to ignore, framing the problem as part of a wider, coordinated pattern of “vote theft” that undermines democracy. They have urged both the Election Commission and the Supreme Court to intervene decisively to restore public faith in the electoral process.