NEW DELHI: Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Friday claimed discrepancies in the voter list of Maharashtra, where the Congress-led alliance was routed in the recent assembly polls.
Gandhi alleged that the number of voters was more than the state’s adult population. Addressing a press conference with Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut and NCP-SP MP Supriya Sule by his side, Gandhi claimed that in the five months between the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, 39 lakh new voters were added in Maharashtra.
Highlighting the alleged discrepancy, the Congress leader flagged a sharp rise in voter numbers in a short span. He stressed that the Opposition had uncovered “many irregularities” after studying the voter lists in detail. The Congress MP, citing government data, said 9.54 crore people were eligible to vote in Maharashtra, but 9.7 crore exercised their franchise in the Assembly polls.
“In 5 years between the Vidhan Sabha elections in 2019 and Lok Sabha 2024, 32 lakh voters were added. However, in a period of 5 months between Lok Sabha polls 2024 and Vidhan Sabha elections, 39 lakh voters were added. The question is, who are these 39 lakh voters? The second point is, why are there more voters in Maharashtra than the entire voting population of the state?” Gandhi said.
He also asserted that if the demand to the Election Commission by the state’s Opposition parties—Congress, Shiv Sena-UBT and NCP-SP—to be given centralised data of voters’ list for the Lok Sabha elections 2024 and the assembly polls 2024, is not met, the next step would be to approach the judiciary.
The Congress leader also alleged that names of many voters have been deleted or transferred ahead of the assembly polls and most of these were from Dalit, tribal and minority communities.
He said the Opposition parties in Maharashtra suspect that the number of deletions are much more than the number of additions.
He 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.
Gandhi also cited the example of Maharashtra’s Kamthi constituency, saying the BJP’s margin of victory is nearly equal to the number of new voters added.
In a swift reply, the Election Commission of India said it would respond to Gandhi’s allegations in writing.
“The ECI considers political parties as priority stakeholders. It deeply values views, suggestions, questions coming from political parties. The commission would respond in writing with a full factual and procedural matrix uniformly adopted across the country,” the poll body said in a statement.
While the Maharashtra Vikas Agadi (MVA) won 30 out of the 48 seats in Maharashtra in the April-May 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it was reduced to just 49 seats out of the 288 in the Assembly polls.
Maharashtra Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis slammed Rahul Gandhi for his claims and accused Congress of using this as a distraction to cover their defeat in the upcoming Delhi elections.
“This is their way of covering fire to hide their loss. My suggestion is that they should focus on their strategy—only then will they understand why they keep losing elections,” Fadnavis said.
With Agency Inputs