‘Insult to people’s mandate’: Devendra Fadnavis slams Rahul Gandhi’s voter fraud allegations as ‘baseless’

Gandhi, who is the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, on Thursday accused the Election Commission and the BJP of having perpetrated “a huge criminal fraud” in the 2024 parliamentary elections in seats including Bangalore Central. Gandhi said a team studied data from the Mahadevapura Assembly segment in Bengaluru, and listed ways in which the election was allegedly manipulated. He also alleged that the 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections were “stolen”.

“All these charges are baseless. The Congress has no agenda as the people have rejected them in the Maharashtra Assembly and Lok Sabha polls. Instead of doing a serious introspection on their failures, the Congress is looking for excuses to cover up its failures,” Fadnavis stated.

Responding to Gandhi’s statements, Maharashtra Cultural Affairs and Information Technology Minister Ashish Shelar said the Congress and the Opposition must stop their relentless disrespect towards the voters of Maharashtra. If they only intend to discredit elections, they should first resign from the Legislative Assembly, he added.

Shelar said that both the Congress and the Maha Vikas Aghadi Alliance (MVA), of which it is a part, are unable to digest the resounding mandate delivered by the voters through the ballot.

He pointed out that the Opposition, especially the Congress, is now crying foul over voter lists and the electoral process, but failed to raise objections when the draft voter rolls were released for public scrutiny. “The Election Commission will present its stand, but the fact remains that only 3,900 objections were filed at the time, and of these, only 98 were found valid,” he stated.

Shelar added, “During the counting of votes, each booth had representatives from all political parties. Why did Congress workers deployed across 27,000 booths not raise any objection?”

The Mumbai BJP president questioned the MVA and the Congress for raising doubts over the increased voter turnout. “Why is the Congress hiding the hourly voter turnout data if they are so concerned, and claiming a sudden surge in voting,” he asked. Recalling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal for high voter participation, Shelar asserted that there is nothing wrong if people came out in larger numbers.

He also condemned the Opposition’s hypocrisy, saying that they object when voter turnout increases and when voter rolls are cleaned, they still complain. “This double standard must end. If high voter turnout helps Congress in the Lok Sabha, they welcome and celebrate it. But if the same people reject them in Assembly elections, they cry foul,” the minister said.