n Amid political controversy over senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who claimed on Saturday that the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections were a “blueprint for rigging democracy”, the Election Commission on Saturday rejected his claims of “match-fixing” in elections and described it as “unsubstantiated allegations.”
BJP too jumped in accused the Leader of Opposition “cooking up bizarre conspiracies” in his desperation after losing a series of elections. Hitting back at Rahul, BJP national president JP Nadda said Rahul Gandhi’s claim is a blueprint for manufacturing fake narratives, owing to his sadness and desperation of losing election after election. Terming Rahul’s claims “straight out of George Soros’ playbook”, BJP IT Cell head Malviya called out Rahul’s “repeated attempts” to “sow seeds of doubt and dissension” in the minds of voters about institutional processes.
Putting a point wise rebuttal of Congress MP’s claims, the EC sources said, “Any misinformation being spread, by anyone, is not only a sign of disrespect towards the Law, but also brings disrepute to the thousands of representatives appointed by their political party and demotivates lakhs of election staff who work untiringly and transparently during elections. After any unfavourable verdict by the voters, trying to defame the Election Commission by saying that it is compromised is completely absurd”.
“Unsubstantiated allegations raised against the electoral rolls of Maharashtra are an affront to the rule of law. The Election Commission had brought out all these facts in its reply to the INC on 24th December 2024 itself, which is available on ECI’s website. It appears that all these facts are being completely ignored while raising such issues again and again,” the EC sources said.
Reacting to EC later, Rahul in a social media post said, “Dear EC, You are a Constitutional body. Releasing unsigned, evasive notes to intermediaries is not the way to respond to serious questions. If you have nothing to hide, answer the questions in my article and prove it by: Publishing consolidated, digital, machine-readable voter rolls for the most recent elections to the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhas of all States including Maharashtra. Releasing all post-5 pm CCTV footage from Maharashtra polling booths. Evasion won’t protect your credibility. Telling the truth will”.
The EC’s remarks came after Rahul Gandhi launched a fresh attack on the ruling BJP, alleging that the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly election was a “blueprint for rigging democracy”. Notably, Rahul Gandhi created a controversy weeks after the Election Commission of India (ECI) dismissed allegations over Maharashtra elections.
Earlier Rahul claimed the “match-fixing” of Maharashtra will come to Bihar next, and anywhere the BJP is losing. In a post on X, he said, “My article shows how this happened, step by step: step 1: rig the panel for appointing the election commission. step 2: add fake voters to the roll. step 3: inflate voter turnout. step 4: target the bogus voting exactly where the BJP needs to win. step 5: hide the evidence.”
“The entire nation is aware that each election process including the preparation of electoral rolls, polling and counting etc. are all held by Government staff and that too in the presence of authorised representatives formally appointed by political parties/candidates from polling station upto constituency level,” it said.
Rejecting the claims, the EC functionary underlined that 6,40,87,588 (over 6.4 crore) voters who reached the polling stations between 7 am and 6 pm exercised their franchise in the Maharashtra polls. About 58 lakh votes, on an average, were polled every hour, they said. Going by the average trend, nearly 1.16 crore voters could have voted in the last two hours, the sources added.
“Therefore, the casting of 65 lakh votes by electors in two hours is much below the average hourly voting trend,” an EC functionary pointed out.
The EC functionary also noted that the voting progressed in the presence of the polling agents formally appointed by the candidates or political parties at every polling booth. The Congress candidates or their authorised agents had not raised “any substantiated allegation” regarding any kind of abnormal voting at the time of scrutiny before the returning officers and election observers the next day, they pointed out.
On the issue of alleged fudging of electoral data, the EC said voter lists in India, including in Maharashtra, were prepared according to the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. According to the laws, either just before an election or once every year, a special summary revision of the electoral rolls is conducted and its final copy handed over to all national or state political parties. After the finalisation of the electoral rolls for the Maharashtra election, as against the 9,77,90,752 (over 9.77 crore) electors, only 89 appeals were filed before the first appellate authority -- the district magistrate concerned -- and only one was filed before the second appellate authority -- the state chief electoral officer. “Therefore, it is amply clear that there was no grievance of the Congress or any other political party before the conduct of the Maharashtra Assembly election in 2024,” the EC functionary said.
Slamming Rahul over his accusations, Malviya accused the Congress leader of deliberately making repeated attempts to sow seeds of doubt and dissension in the minds of the voters about the poll process. The BJP leader pointed out that when Congress wins an election be it in Telangana or Karnataka, the same system is hailed as “fair and just”.
“But when they lose -- from Haryana to Maharashtra -- the whining and conspiracy theories begin, without fail,” he said, adding, “This is straight out of George Soros’ playbook -- systematically erode people’s faith in their own institutions, so they can be cracked open from within for political gains”. “India’s democracy is strong. Its institutions are resilient. And the Indian voter is wise. No amount of manipulation will change that,” Malviya asserted.
“Here’s how he does it, step by step. step 1: the Congress party gets defeated in election after election due to its antics. step 2: instead of introspecting, he cooks up bizarre conspiracies and cries rigging. step 3: ignores all facts and data. step 4: defames institutions with zero proof, He added. step 5: hopes for headlines over facts. Despite being exposed time and again, he shamelessly keeps peddling lies. And, he is doing this because a defeat in Bihar is certain. Democracy doesn’t need drama. It needs truth, Nadda asserted.