Pay & get electoral roll copies: EC cites law to Rahul & Kharge

The ongoing confrontation between the Congress and the Election Commission over alleged voter fraud in the 2024 Maharashtra poll took a new turn on Monday with the EC telling the party about laws that it needed to follow to procure copies of the electoral rolls in the western state.

After Congress leader Rahul Gandhi demanded access to voter rolls of the 2024 Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly elections and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge backed him today, the EC said the Congress could get the rolls against payment of legally prescribed fee to their custodian.

“Good first step taken by the EC to hand over voter rolls. Can the EC please announce the exact date by which this data will be handed over in a digital, machine-readable format?” Gandhi said on reports that the EC would share the data.

The EC, however, clarified it was not saying anything new in the matter and already conveyed to the Congress on May 22 the legal position on how to procure the electoral rolls.

The office of Chief Electoral Officer, Maharashtra, today said electoral rolls were revised annually through a participatory exercise during which these rolls are shared free of cost with political parties, including the Congress. “Such sharing of rolls is done first at the draft stage and again after finalisation. This exercise was done in 2009, 2014, 2019 and 2024 and copies of all these electoral roles were then shared with the Congress as well as with other political parties,” CEO Maharashtra office said today.

The CEO office also said a full copy of electoral rolls used in the Maharashtra Assembly poll was already available on the EC website for free. “So far as earlier electoral rolls go, their copies are retained by district election officers. Under rule 33 of the Registration of Elections Rules, 1960, any person, including the Congress, can apply to the district election officer concerned and get a copy of such retained electoral rolls on payment of a prescribed fee,” said the office of CEO Maharashtra.

The CEO said they had clarified this position on May 22, 2025, to Congress MP Randeep Surjewala, who sought the copy of electoral rolls.

The Congress, meanwhile, issued a statement welcoming the EC’s decision to share voter data. The Congress has been asking how more voters were added in five months in Maharashtra — between the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections than those added between 2019 and 2024.

“This is logically absurd and politically dubious,” said the Congress, adding the only way to ascertain the truth was to compare final voter lists of 2024 Lok Sabha poll with the final voter list of 2024 Assembly elections in Maharashtra.

“This data are available with the EC and we have asked for it several times,” the Congress said on Monday with the EC asking it to approach district election officers to get the rolls as per the legal provisions.

Meanwhile, Kharge today backed Rahul and demanded consolidated, digital and machine-readable voter rolls for the General Elections and Maharashtra Assembly poll in 2024, with full version history and timestamps of updates.

"All post-5 pm CCTV footage from polling booths across Maharashtra during the Assembly elections should also be released. Transparency is not a favour, it is a constitutional obligation," said Kharge.

On video footage, the EC said CCTV footage of polling stations could be scrutinised by the competent high court in any election petition. "There is a procedure for everything. Integrity of elections and privacy of voters has to be protected," the EC said.