Rahul Gandhi targets ECI again; poll body officials say Congress is evasive
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Rahul Gandhi targets ECI again; poll body officials say Congress is evasive
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday stepped up his accusations against the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the alleged “rigging” of Maharasthra Assembly elections. Officials of the poll body said it had written to Gandhi for a meeting to discuss all issues pertaining to polling but there was no response from him. Gandhi had alleged that between the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, there was an increase of 31 lakh electors. ECI officials said that the Congress party has also not met the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the two Election Commissioners, two months after ECI invited all political parties to meet the pollBody in New Delhi to redress grievances. They said that Congress leaders were scheduled to meet on May 15; however, the meeting was cancelled and no new date has been finalised yet. Meanwhile, responding to Gandhi’s tweet, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis took to X on Tuesday to say that the pain of Congress’ crushing defeat is growing day by day.
The leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha put out a fresh post on X based on an article by a news website about the lack of mandatory checks in the increase in electors in Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ constituency.
“In Maharashtra, CM’s own constituency, the voter list grew by 8% in just 5 months. Some booths saw a 20-50% surge. BLOs (booth level officers) reported unknown individuals casting votes. Media uncovered thousands of voters with no verified address. And the EC? Silent–or complicit. These aren’t isolated glitches. This is vote theft. The cover-up is the confession. That’s why we demand the immediate release of machine-readable digital voter rolls and CCTV footage”, Gandhi wrote.
Earlier on June 7, in an op-ed article, Gandhi had alleged that between the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, there was an increase of 31 lakh electors. He emphasised that in the five-month period between the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly elections, there was a leap of 41 lakh electors, referring to this spike as fake voters.
ECI officials familiar with the matter said on Tuesday that following Gandhi’s allegations, it had written to him to discuss all issues pertaining to the elections and the letter was delivered to his address on June 12, but there had been no response from him.
In its letter to Gandhi titled “Invitation for an interaction with the Commission” dated June 12, the Commission said: “We presume that any issue regarding conduct of elections would have already been raised through election petitions filed in the competent court of law by the INC candidates. However, if you still have any issues, you are welcome to write to us and the Commission is also willing to meet you in person at a mutually convenient date and time to discuss all issues. A convenient date and time may be communicated in this regard.” HT has seen a copy of the letter.
ECI officials said the issues raised by Gandhi in the June 7 article were similar to those raised by the Congress after the Maharashtra Assembly elections in November 2024 and a detailed reply had been given to the party on December 24.
ECI officials said that the Congress party has also not met the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the two Election Commissioners, two months after ECI invited all political parties to meet the poll body in New Delhi to redress grievances.
They said that Congress leaders were scheduled to meet on May 15; however, the meeting was cancelled and no new date has been finalised yet. Parties that have submitted their representations to ECI so far include the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M), and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Meanwhile, responding to Gandhi’s tweet, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis took to X on Tuesday and said that the pain of Congress’ crushing defeat in Maharasthra is growing day by day. “By the way, for your information, there are more than 25 constituencies in Maharashtra where voter turnout increased by over 8 percent between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, and Congress won in many of those places,” he said.
“Even if not with allied parties, it would have been better if you had spoken to your own party’s long-time associates like Aslam Shaikh, Vikas Thakre, and Nitin Raut before this tweet. At least the Congress wouldn’t have performed so poorly due to a lack of communication.”
He then gave examples: “In the West Nagpur constituency, adjacent to my South-West region, voter turnout increased by 7% (27,065), and Congress candidate Vikas Thakre won the election. In North Nagpur, voter turnout increased by 7% (29,348), and Nitin Raut from Congress won. In Pune district’s Wadgaon Sheri, voter turnout increased by 10% (50,911), and Bapusaheb Pathare from the Sharad Pawar faction won. In Malad West, voter turnout increased by 11% (38,625), and your Congress party’s Aslam Shaikh won. In Mumbra, voter turnout increased by 9% (46,041), and Jitendra Awhad from the Sharad Pawar faction won.”
Responding to Gandhi, Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) also took to X and said that electoral rolls are prepared transparently and copies were shared with recognised parties.
“As informed by the Election Commission of India already, electoral rolls are shared with all recognised political parties. During 2nd Special Summary Revision-2024, which was taken up before the general elections to Maharashtra assembly- 2024, the copies of draft and final electoral rolls of all 288 assembly constituencies were provided to representatives of all recognised political parties including Indian National Congress,” the CEO said.
The CEO further said that between draft and final publication of electoral rolls 19,27,508 claims and objections were received for consideration.As per law, appeals can be filed against wrongful additions or deletions in the electoral rolls, however, only 89 Appeals were received, the CEO added.
Earlier, the Maharashtra CEO in a post on X on June 12 had issued a clarification on the “misleading” claims regarding the addition and deletion of electors, stating that “Indian electoral laws do not provide for any centralized addition or deletion of electors”.
The CEO had explained: “…that there was a net increase of 32.25 lakh electors from the 2019 Assembly elections to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on account of 1.39 crore additions and 1.07 crore deletions [of electors]. Total additions between LS 2024 elections and Assembly 2024 elections were 48.82 lakh and deletions were 8 lakh. Hence, net addition in electors after LS 2024 was 40.81 lakh. [Within this] more than 26 lakh of the additions were young electors in the age group of 18 to 29 years.”
The CEO had reiterated that the gross addition of electors from the 2019 Assembly elections to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls stood at 1.39 crore, while the additions between the LS 2024 and Assembly 2024 elections amounted to 48.82 lakh–both figures excluding deletions.
ECI officials said there was no discrepancy in the voter turnout data and clarified that the figures displayed on the voter turnout app App would logically increase by 11.45 pm and further into the next day.
They explained that after polling concludes, the safe depositing of EVMs and election papers in strongrooms is prioritised. Once that process is complete, Returning Officers begin collecting voter turnout data from Presiding Officers of each polling booth and start entering the final data into the VTR App.
“[In this process] the updated voter turnout starts continuously reflecting on the VTR App again from 7 pm onwards. [Also] polling teams come from varying distances and face different logistical challenges, such as late-hour voting trends, difficult geographical and weather conditions, communication issues, and tough terrain. As a result, voter turnout data is received at different times in the evening of polling day, sometimes overnight, and occasionally even the next day,” an ECI official, who did not wish to be named, said, citing the Commission’s December 24 letter.