A screenshot showing a list of eligible voters from Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi has gone viral on social media shortly after Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi's accusations about the Election Commission of India being complicit in 'vote theft' (वोट चोरी).
What does it show?: The list is the electoral roll of Varanasi's Bhelupur area, which shows 50 voters of different ages, all of whom have 'Ramkamal Das' listed as their father.
The claim: The screenshot is being shared as one of bogus voters in Varanasi, with some claiming that the ECI had compiled this data showing fraudulent voters.
We found that all those who listed Ramkamal Das as their fathers are students at a monastery or ashram, who have listed their guru's name in place of their actual father's names, following tradition.
How did we find out?: To start with, we looked for the original list on the Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission's website using details from the claim.
When we found out, we saw that the list was accurate and had not been edited to make the claim.
We then carried out a keyword search using the term 'Ramkamal Das 50 children UP' to look for more information about this list.
The search led us to a news report published by Jagran in 2023 about this anomaly.
It said that this issue was first noted during the 2023 municipal elections in Varanasi, when 48 voters from the Bhelupur ward shared the same address and father's name on the electoral roll.
"Swami Ramkamal Das Vedanti is the Mahant of Ramjanki Math (monastery)," it noted, adding that the establishment's manager, Rambharat Shastri, had verified the list.
Shastri told Jagran that their monastery followed the guru-shishya (teacher-disciple) tradition, due to which all of Swami Ramkamal Das' disciples had entered his name as their father's name instead of their biological father's names.
He added that earlier, about 150 people had registered as voters in this manner, but the number had come down to 48 in 2023.
We came across the same details in another report by ETV Bharat.
Authorities clarify: Taking to their official X account, Uttar Pradesh's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) provided the context to the now-viral claim, which they had addressed on 12 March 2025.
They noted that the list showed the electoral roll for urban local body elections and was not prepared by the Election Commission of India.
The X thread added context to the list, stating, "in case of a religious Math/ Ashram the persons/sanyasis residing in it are identified by the name of their Guru instead of their Father."
Conclusion: A list showing 50 voters with the same father's name in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi has gone viral with the false implication that it shows bogus voters.
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