EC rejects Maha election ‘rigging’ charge as absurd; don’t evade, counters Rahul

Charges and counter-charges flew thick and fast on Saturday as Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and the Election Commission engaged in rebuttals over party leader’s charges of “match-fixing and rigging” in the 2024 Maharashtra elections.

The EC in a statement dismissed Gandhi’s accusations as “absurd”, saying opposition parties had won big in major states where greater numbers of voters were added to the electoral rolls than Maharashtra over the last two poll cycles.

The remarks followed Gandhi’s principal accusations of inflated electoral rolls in Maharashtra where the BJP-led NDA allies won 235 of 288 seats, reducing the Congress to its worst-ever show in the state. “Trying to defame the EC as compromised after an unfavourable verdict by the voters is completely absurd.... Misinformation being spread by anyone is not only a sign of disrespect towards the law, but of disrepute to thousands of representatives appointed by their own political party,” the EC said in a statement after Gandhi called 2024 Maharashtra polls a “blueprint for rigging democracy” and said “match-fixing would next happen in Bihar and anywhere the BJP is losing”.

The Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha listed a five-step “rigging exercise” to cement his charge — “Rig the panel for appointing the EC; add fake voters to the roll; inflate voter turnout; target the bogus voting exactly where BJP needs to win; hide the evidence.”

Gandhi’s main charge was massive addition of voters to Maharashtra electoral rolls — 31 lakh between the 2019 Assembly elections and the 2024 LS polls and 41 lakh between the 2024 LS polls and the November 2024 state polls.

The EC, however, released voter addition data across states to show that opposition parties had won Assembly elections in West Bengal, Telangana and Jharkhand after larger percentages of voters than Maharashtra were added to the electoral rolls of these states between the last two elections.

While Maharashtra saw 8.14% rise in electors between 2019 and 2024 Assembly polls (8.97 crore to 9.70 crore), Jharkhand — where the JMM-led INDIA bloc won the last Assembly election — saw 13.40% rise (2.30 crore to 2.61 crore) in voters between 2019 and 2024 state polls.

Telangana, where the Congress won the last polls, witnessed 16.16% rise in the number of electors from 2018 to 2023 polls — 2.80 crore to 3.26 crore — and West Bengal, where Mamata Banerjee-led TMC won in 2021, saw over 74 lakh voters added to the electoral rolls between 2016 and 2021 Assembly polls — from 6.68 crore to nearly 7.33 cr across the two cycles.

EC sources also said over 1 lakh booth-level officers of Maharashtra were waiting for Gandhi’s “wild allegations to be converted into at least a single real appeal in front of district magistrates as per Section 24 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1950”.

Gandhi countered the EC in a late evening message, saying evasion won’t protect its credibility, telling the truth would. “If you have nothing to hide, publish consolidated, digital, machine-readable voter rolls for the most recent elections to the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhas of all states, including Maharashtra. Release all post-5 pm CCTV footage from Maharashtra polling booths,” Gandhi said to the EC.

The EC had earlier said electoral rolls were prepared as per the Representation of People’s Act, 1950, and Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, and rolls were revised and final copy given to all parties either just before the elections and/or once a year.

“After roll finalisation in Maharashtra, only 89 appeals were filed before first appellate authority and one before the second. So it is clear that the Congress had no grievance,” the EC sources said, clarifying Rahul’s Maharashtra-related charges for the second time, first being on December 24, 2024.

On Gandhi’s voter turnout inflation remarks, the EC said during the Maharashtra polls, 6,40,87,588 electors who reached the polling station from 7 am to 6 pm voted. “About 58 lakh average votes were polled per hour. By average trends, 116 lakh voters could have voted in the last two hours but actually just 65 lakh voted,” EC sources said.

They also responded to Rahul’s charge of panel to appoint the ECs being rigged, noting: “Previously, election commissioners were appointed by prime ministers. JL Nehru to Manmohan Singh, PMs appointed the CEC and ECs at will. Since 2023, for the first time, they are appointed under a law. Obviously the new system is better.”