Cong lone national party to skip May meet on voting: EC

Amid the ongoing war of words with the Congress over match-fixing allegations in the 2024 Maharashtra polls, the Election Commission on Sunday said the principal opposition party was the lone national outfit to have dropped out of a planned meeting with the panel to discuss outstanding concerns around voting and other election processes.

EC sources today said presidents of five out of six national parties had attended these meetings with top poll panel officials during May.

“The Congress is the only national party that did not come for the meeting scheduled with the commission on May 15. They dropped out of the meeting and didn’t revert to us. Now their leader Rahul Gandhi is attacking us from outside. He should stop this guerrilla warfare, and come and talk to us. For any concerns around voting he has, he should write to us so that we can respond officially and formally,” EC sources told The Tribune today.

Gandhi had yesterday dared the EC to publish consolidated, digital, machine-readable voter rolls for the most recent elections to the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhas, including Maharashtra, and release all post-5 pm CCTV footage from Maharashtra polling booths.

The officials today said it was strange that even 24 hours after he first attacked the EC again on Saturday, Gandhi had neither written to the commission nor sought time for a meeting.

“As per procedure, it is public knowledge and everyone knows that any constitutional body, including the EC, will formally respond only when Rahul Gandhi writes to them. Also, as per EC instructions, CCTV footage of polling stations can always be scrutinised by the competent high court in any election petition. The EC does this to protect the integrity of elections and privacy of voters. Why does Gandhi himself or through his agents want to invade the privacy of voters, which is to be protected by the EC as per electoral laws? Does Gandhi not trust even the high courts now?” top EC sources said, adding that the Congress should respond to the invitation for a meeting which was due in May.

After concerns were raised about election processes in Maharashtra and Haryana, the EC had met with the presidents of five national parties in one-on-one interactions at the poll panel office here.

The meeting with AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal happened on May 15; BSP chief Mayawati on May 6; BJP president JP Nadda on May 8; CPM general secretary MA Baby on May 10 and National People’s Party chief Conrad Sangma on May 13.

“The EC had extended the invitation to the Congress and its party president Mallikarjun Kharge for an interaction on May 15. The Congress on May 7 responded, requesting a deferral of the proposed interaction citing security challenges prevailing at the time of Operation Sindoor. They have not come back to us with a new date,” EC officials said.

EC data show that through March 2025, 4,719 all-party meetings have been conducted by the poll panel to address concerns political parties — national and others — may have.

These include 40 meetings by chief electoral officers, 800 by district electoral officers and 3,879 by electoral registration officers engaging over 28,000 representatives of various political parties. “Allegations that the EC has met opposition queries with silence and aggression fly in the face of facts,” EC officials said today.