Nagpur: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday said Lok Sabha leader of Opposition and Congress neta Rahul Gandhi ‘s allegations of Maharashtra assembly polls being rigged, is both delusional and an outright lie. Gandhi in an article said BJP won the 2024 assembly polls by inflating voter numbers, indulging in bogus voting and ‘rigging’ the panel which appoints the Election Commissioner. He used Kamptee constituency, 20km off Nagpur, as a case study to buttress his point.Talking to reporters in Nagpur, Fadnavis said “Rahul Gandhi is a liar. He’s making delusional statements to give a false sense of security to himself and the party. He has insulted Maharashtra’s voters by saying this.”CM added that this allegation by Gandhi is not new and the article has been written because the former Congress president refuses to accept defeat in Maharashtra. “Till he accepts the truth (poll result), he will continue lying. Probably, he feels that by repeating a lie daily might ultimately turn it into truth. But that’s an illusion which Gandhi is creating to placate himself. It’s time for him to wake up and hit the ground running, else his party will be wiped out,” said Fadnavis.Gandhi’s article questioned the pace of increase in the number of voters in Maharashtra, between Lok Sabha polls 2024 held in April-May, and assembly polls in November.Gandhi wrote that in these five months 41 lakh new voters were added in the state, as compared to only 31 lakh between 2019-2024.Of the 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra, Gandhi chose Kamptee Vidhan Sabha (Nagpur district) as the sole case study. Kamptee straddles the North-South border of Nagpur city, thus covering a vast geographical area. It’s represented by Maharashtra BJP president and cabinet minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule.Gandhi wrote that in Kamptee assembly polls, BJP’s vote share rose by 56,000 as compared to Lok Sabha polls. “This jump came from the bank of 35,000 new voters added in Kamptee between the two elections. It appears almost all voters who had not voted in Lok Sabha and almost all the 35,000 new additions were magnetically drawn to BJP. It is not hard to discern the lotus shape of the magnet,” wrote Gandhi.Bawankule shot back saying Rahul Gandhi “speaks without checking facts”. Talking to TOI, Bawankule said, “The number of voters has risen in every election. In 1999, we had just over two lakh voters in Kamptee and now it’s around 5.3 lakh. There are 11 assembly constituencies in Maharashtra which have seen such an increase due to urbanization as people shift from big cities to neighbouring suburbs. Just like Kamptee, we have Panvel which has over 6 lakh voters, Pimpri-Chinchwad has over 5 lakh voters. During Congress’ regime also voter numbers increased, so should we start questioning ECI over that?”When specifically asked on Gandhi’s claim that 35,000 new voters were added in just five months, Bawankule said “Congress added 17,000 voters in Kamptee. I will soon make the data public, specifying the booth numbers. That’s why I said, Rahul Gandhi speaks without checking facts. I invite him to come to Kamptee and see the ground reality. Kamptee is now semi-urbanized as people are moving here. We have so many places within the constituency which have now been upgraded to nagar panchayats, so it’s no longer a rural patch now. ” Bawankule added that Gandhi’s article is a result of him being “unable to recover from the 2024 shock of poll drubbing in Maharashtra”.This irked Congress state president Harshwardhan Sapkal, who while addressing the media at Mumbai said “Bawankule should speak on facts stated by Rahul ji, and not make personal attacks. Else, we can also say that Bawankule was denied a ticket in 2019, despite being a cabinet minister, because he refused to give a contract to a top private player.”