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Looking for ‘hydrogen' in Rahul's ‘H Files’: Was Haryana the ‘bomb’ in latest ‘vote chori’ charge?

BJP's Rijiju picks on “bomb” analogy and Rahul Gandhi's foreign trips to claim that he is “in collusion with anti-India forces”

Updated on: Nov 05, 2025 04:12 pm IST
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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's latest presentation of alleged proofs of electoral fraud — his third such press meet since August — was headlined ‘The H Files’, feeding the theory that this could be the “hydrogen bomb” to which he's been referring in his battle against the BJP and the Election Commission, whom he accuses of colluding.

Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi with stacks of voter record at his press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday, Nov 5 2025.(Naveen Sharma/ANI Photo)

It appeared eventually that the “H” stood, for most part, for Haryana, the state at the centre of Rahul Gandhi's latest allegations, at a press conference in Delhi on Wednesday, November 5.

Rahul Gandhi has been speaking about an “atom bomb”, or “h-bomb”, a “hydrogen bomb” — meaning “massive proof” that would feel like an "earthquake" — ever since he started with a series of presentations and statements on “vote chori” or alleged theft of votes. It's not clear if the analogy has been realised or not yet.

The bomb analogy aside, he did make serious allegations centered around the Haryana assembly election of 2024 that the Congress lost to the incumbent BJP. These primarily included the charge that there were 25 lakh “fake voters” that were potentially used to sway the result. He notably cited the example of the photo of a woman, who is actually a Brazilian model, being used for multiple voters across polling booths.

The BJP in its reaction dubbed Gandhi “non-serious”, even taking a dig at the Italian origins of his mother Sonia Gandhi.

“He has made a presentation about irrelevant matters. I don’t want to go into that because it was all fake,” union minister and BJP leader Kiren Rijiju said at a press conference.

The EC has so far said these issues were never raised by the party at the right forum, to which Gandhi has said he has only used EC's own data and it's the latter's job to ensure fairness in elections.

Rijiju picked on the “bomb” analogy and Gandhi's foreign trips to claim that he is "in collusion with anti-India forces”.

“Rahul Gandhi says that ‘atom bomb is going to explode’, but why doesn’t his ‘atom bomb’ ever explode? He doesn’t take any subject seriously and even says that ‘a hydrogen bomb will explode’," he added.

Rijiju also reacted to Gandhi's mention of Gen Z and said, “The youth of this country are wise and stand by PM Narendra Modi.”

The Congress leader earlier urged the youth to use “truth and non-violence” to “change the system” — his umpteenth mention of the term “Gen Z” that refers mainly to young people born around the turn of the millennium. It's been in vogue particularly after youth protests unseated entrenched leaders in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka recently.

BJP's Radhika Khera also countered Gandhi's “Brazilian model” charge with a jibe on voting by an “Italian woman”, apparently referring to Sonia Gandhi.

 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aarish Chhabra

Aarish Chhabra is an Associate Editor with the Hindustan Times online team, writing news reports and explanatory articles, besides overseeing coverage for the website. His career spans nearly two decades across India's most respected newsrooms in print, digital, and broadcast. He has reported, written, and edited across formats — from breaking news and live election coverage, to analytical long-reads and cultural commentary — building a body of work that reflects both editorial rigour and a deep curiosity about the society he writes for. Aarish studied English literature, sociology and history, besides journalism, at Panjab University, Chandigarh, and started his career in that city, eventually moving to Delhi. He is also the author of ‘The Big Small Town: How Life Looks from Chandigarh’, a collection of critical essays originally serialised as a weekly column in the Hindustan Times, examining the culture and politics of a city that is far more than its famous architecture — and, in doing so, holding up a mirror to modern India. In stints at the BBC, The Indian Express, NDTV, and Jagran New Media, he worked across formats and languages; mainly English, also Hindi and Punjabi. He was part of the crack team for the BBC Explainer project replicated across the world by the broadcaster. At Jagran, he developed editorial guides and trained journalists on integrity and content quality. He has also worked at the intersection of journalism and education. At the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, he developed a website that simplified academic research in management. At Bennett University's Times School of Media in Noida, he taught students the craft of digital journalism: from newsgathering and writing, to social media strategy and video storytelling. Having moved from a small town to a bigger town to a mega city for education and work, his intellectual passions lie at the intersection of society, politics, and popular culture — a perspective that informs both his writing and his view of the world. When not working, he is constantly reading long-form journalism or watching brainrot content, sometimes both at the same time.

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