New Delhi: Alleging “numerous irregularities” in the Maharashtra polls, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday claimed there were more registered voters than the entire state’s adult population, and that more voters were added in five months between the Lok Sabha and state polls than in the five years before that.
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 Election Commission said it will respond with full facts in writing and the procedural matrix uniformly adopted across the country. Addressing a joint press conference with Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut and NCP (SP)’s Supriya Sule, Gandhi 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.
“What we’ve found regarding the Maharashtra elections raises several questions for the Election Commission. 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,” Gandhi said.
claimed at the press conference at the Constitution Club here.
“Why were more voters added after the Lok Sabha elections? Who are these 39 lakh individuals? Notably, 39 lakh voters are equivalent to the entire voter population of Himachal Pradesh, added in a remarkably short period,” he said.
Why did the EC add more voters in Maharashtra in five months than it did in five years, Gandhi asked.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, in a tweet, said in “view of the huge discrepancies”, the EC “should provide us with a consolidated voter list in Excel format with photographs, which was used for voting”.
“This is very important for upholding faith in the fairness of the electoral process and trust in Democracy. We will not let the ‘Mother of Democracy’ become a ‘Manipulated Democracy’!” he wrote.
Pointing out that Maharashtra’s adult population is 9.54 crore while the voter population in the assembly polls was 9.7 crore, Gandhi asked why there were more registered voters in the assembly elections 2024 than the entire adult population of Maharashtra.
