Congress ecosystem targets Hindu priest Ramkamal Das with 2023 fake claim to amplify Rahul Gandhi’s ‘vote chori’ narrative

In yet another attempt to undermine the credibility of India’s democratic institutions, the Congress social media ecosystem has revived a debunked 2023 propaganda narrative targeting the Election Commission of India (ECI).

This time, pro-Congress influencers and trolls including self-proclaimed “journalist” Punya Prasun Bajpai, and known Congress amplifiers Arpit Sharma and Neha Singh Rathore have been circulating an old voter list from Varanasi Municipal Corporation elections with the claim that a man named Ramkamal Das has 40–50 “sons” listed as voters at the same address.

The posts, riddled with sarcasm and insinuations, are aimed at lending credence to Rahul Gandhi’s unsubstantiated “vote chori” allegations. The intention is clear: paint the ECI as complicit in facilitating fake voters, thereby discrediting the institution ahead of political battles.

The claim

The viral posts allege that a person named Ramkamal Das in Varanasi is the father of dozens of voters, all adult men, some with implausible age gaps implying large-scale voter list fraud. Bajpai mockingly wrote about a father with a 28-year-old youngest son and a 72-year-old eldest son. Sharma pushed the claim further, pairing it with unrelated Bihar voter age anomalies to hint at “cheating.” Rathore joined in, claiming Ramkamal Das lives with “43 sons.”

The truth

The voter list in question is not from the ECI’s electoral roll for Lok Sabha or Assembly elections. It is from the 2023 Varanasi Municipal Corporation elections — Ward No. 51, Bhelupur. The list shows multiple voters with Ramkamal Das recorded as their father.

Here’s the factual background deliberately omitted by the propagandists:

Swami Ramkamal Das Vedanti is the Mahant (head priest) of Ram Janki Math in Khojwa, Varanasi. His ashram follows the Guru–Shishya tradition, in which disciples regard their spiritual Guru as their “father” and often officially record his name in place of their biological father’s. In 2023, a total of 48 disciples of Swami Ramkamal Das, all genuine individuals, were registered as voters at the Math’s address. This practice is well-known in religious circles and is entirely legal.

On 12 March 2025, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Uttar Pradesh reiterated that the list belonged to an urban local body election roll, not the ECI’s general electoral roll. The CEO clarified:

“In the case of a religious Math/Ashram, the persons or sanyasis residing in it are identified by the name of their Guru instead of their father. Many sanyasis residing in an ashram may also be of the same age.”

The 2023 Fact Check

When the same list went viral in May 2023, several media outlets fact-checked the claim. Reports quoted the Math’s manager, Rambharat Shastri, explaining that disciples adopt new names upon initiation and record the Guru’s name as their father in official documents. Earlier, 150 disciples had done so; the number has since reduced to 48.

Jagran’s May 5, 2023 report confirmed the list was genuine and that all voters were real individuals residing at the Math. Even political rivals who initially raised objections dropped the matter once the facts emerged.

Media stunt designed to lend credence to Gandhi’s baseless voter fraud conspiracy

The revival of this debunked claim serves a calculated political purpose. It is designed to reinforce Rahul Gandhi’s baseless “vote chori” narrative by manufacturing examples of alleged voter fraud, thereby lending false credibility to his accusations. At the same time, it aims to erode public trust in the Election Commission, which has repeatedly been targeted by Congress and its allies whenever electoral outcomes have not gone in their favour. By exploiting cultural traditions such as the Guru–Shishya practice, which may be unfamiliar to urban online audiences, the campaign creates viral outrage, making perfectly legitimate voter entries appear suspicious and fuelling a perception of systemic malpractice.

Rahul Gandhi’s ‘vote chori’ propaganda busted again

The claim that Ramkamal Das has dozens of fake “sons” registered as voters is misleading. The names belong to real disciples of Swami Ramkamal Das Vedanti, the Mahant of Ram Janki Math, recorded under the Guru–Shishya tradition in the municipal electoral roll of 2023, not the ECI’s official rolls for general elections.

This recycled propaganda is a textbook example of how half-truths are weaponised by the Congress social media ecosystem to attack institutions and manufacture mistrust for political gain. The facts remain unchanged since 2023: there was no voter list fraud in this case only deliberate distortion for optics.