'Crisis in Indian politics': Rahul Gandhi questions 2024 Lok Sabha mandate, alleges democracy was ‘destroyed’ in India in 2014

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday launched yet another attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party after he alleged that democracy in India was undermined in 2014, claiming that the general election that year marked a major shift in the country's political and electoral landscape.

Speaking at the Bharat Summit 2026 in Hyderabad, he also questioned the credibility of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, citing alleged discrepancies in voter data and the addition of new voters in Maharashtra ahead of the Assembly polls.

Recalling the 2014 general election, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said the scale of money entering the political system was unlike anything India had witnessed before. He argued that the election disrupted an established political arrangement in which close contests and coalition governments had shaped electoral outcomes.


"In 2014, we witnessed a completely new election, something we've never seen before. Millions and millions and millions of dollars injected into the political system," he said.


"Millions and millions and millions of dollars injected into the political system... The electoral system that was used to close fights, coalition, is suddenly upturned, and I would be lying if I said that the opposition was in shock," he added.

Gandhi admitted that the Opposition was initially caught off guard by the change. He described the following decade as a period of crisis in Indian politics, alleging that it took years for the Opposition to understand what had happened to the electoral system.

"There was this crisis in Indian politics for a decade. And then suddenly, we discovered what was happening. We discovered it, and we have proven it without any doubt is that democracy was destroyed in India in 2014," he said.

Rahul Gandhi points to Maharashtra elections

Gandhi also turned his attention to the Election Commission, questioning the treatment of voter records and the legitimacy of elections if millions of people who had cast their votes were subsequently classified as non-voters or non-existent voters.

He claimed that 140 million people who voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were later categorised as either non-existent voters or non-voters.

"140 million people who voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha election were declared as either non-existent voters or non-voters a few months ago," Gandhi said, questioning how an election could be considered legitimate if such a large number of voters were subsequently deemed invalid.

To underline his concerns, he cited the contrasting results of the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Maharashtra.

The 56-year-old politician pointed out that the Congress-led Opposition alliance had won the state's Lok Sabha contest but suffered a decisive defeat in the Assembly elections held just three months later.

He said the party began examining the voting figures to understand the sharp reversal and came across what he described as troubling discrepancies.

According to Gandhi, the alliance received almost the same number of votes in both elections, despite the BJP securing a sweeping victory in the Assembly polls. He claimed that seven million new voters had been added to the rolls in the three months between the elections and alleged that every one of them had voted for the BJP.

"Seven million new voters are added in three months, and every single one of those seven million voters votes for the BJP, and they win the election," he said.