ECI manipulated electoral rolls before 2024 Maharashtra Polls: Rahul Gandhi

Leader of Opposition (LoP) and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi Friday accused the Election Commission of India of manipulating the electoral rolls before the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly Elections

New Delhi: Leader of Opposition (LoP) and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi Friday accused the Election Commission of India of manipulating the electoral rolls before the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly Elections.

The Congress and its allies NCP (Sharad Pawar) and Shiv Sena (UBT) had defeated the BJP led NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

However, in the Maharashtra assembly elections held after few months, the Congress led-alliance could win just 49 of the total 288 seats.

Raising doubts over such a serious poll reversal within months, Rahul Gandhi said 39 lakh new voters were added in the Maharashtra electoral rolls after the Lok Sabha and before the state elections.

“Between the 2019 Vidhan Sabha elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, 32 lakh voters were added to Maharashtra's electoral rolls over five years.

"However, between the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the 2024 Vidhan Sabha elections, 39 lakh new voters were added in just five months”, Rahul Gandhi said while addressing a joint press conference with NCP (Sharad Pawar) leader Supriya Sule and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut.

“Why were more voters added after the Lok Sabha elections? Who are these 39 lakh individuals?

“Notably, 39 lakh voters is equivalent to the entire voter population of Himachal Pradesh, added in a remarkably short period”, Rahu said.

"What has happened is that this dynamic list is constantly changing, and anyone can change it. The nice way to say it is that the EC has lost control of the list. The bad way to say it is that the EC has manipulated the list", Rahul said.

'EC must clear the air'

Indicating that this massive enrolments of new voters changed the election results, Rahul claimed the majority of the voters added have gone in the BJP‘s favour as the opposition parties have maintained their vote share in the assembly polls.

"Now, it's the responsibility of the EC to come clean on what has happened", Rahul said.

"Give us the list now if you have no problem giving us the data. Because if you don't, it raises a serious question about our democracy. And it means we are heading towards complete destruction of the Constitution", he said.

Opp demands poll data

Rahul Gandhi and othe Opposition leaders also demanded from the ECI to provide them the list and poll data.

"The Election Commission is the final authority. They won't be able to explain to us how there are more voters in Maharashtra than the state's adult population", Rahul said.

"So they need to give us the voter lists so that we can explain this anomaly. And I'm sure that if they give us the voter lists, there will be another press conference that will answer these pressing questions", Rahul said.

"So that's what we are asking the EC continuously; our alliance parties in Maharashtra also have been asking for the data. But all they have done is delay it, leading to the degradation of our democracy", Rahul said.

The opposition leaders also alleged deletion of the voters from the electoral rolls.

"Also, while this is a small piece of the puzzle, the big piece is the voter deletion. We don't know how many voters have been deleted or where. We only know how many have been added. And we suspect that the number of deletions is much more than the number of additions", Rahul said.

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