Election Commission data rebuts Rahul Gandhi’s Maharashtra voter number claims

Gandhi’s allegation about 7,000 voters being registered from one building address in Shirdi aligns with a similar complaint filed by the local Congress committee in August 2024, before the finalisation of the electoral roll. However, at that time, Pankaj Londhe, President of Rahata tehsil Congress committee, had complained about bogus voters being registered from “specific areas of Shirdi” and not one building address.

On August 14, 2024, Londhe wrote to EC, “It has come to our attention that newly registered voters are not the residents of Shirdi. Therefore we request you to not include the names of these bogus voters in the final list and we take strong objection to any such act. These voters are outsiders and students of a medical college. This registration has taken place in specific areas of Shirdi. Many of these voters are already registered in their original constituencies.”

Further, on November 29, six days after the Maharashtra Assembly election results were announced, the Congress wrote to the EC alleging that there had been a “shocking” 13% increase in electors in the state since the Lok Sabha elections in May 2024.

Replying to the Congress, the EC wrote on December 24, 2024, that the number of electors added between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Maharashtra was 48,81,620, while 8,00,391 electors were deleted, leading to the net addition of 40,81,229 electors. The EC noted that since those who are 18 years or above as on January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1 of each year are eligible to enrol, 8,72,094 electors of the 18-19 age group and 17,74,514 electors of the 20-29 years age group were added.

“Thus, 26,46,608 young electors falling in the age group of 18-29 were added out of total addition of 40,81,229 electors during the period. This is a welcome trend of participation of youth, the future of our democracy. Thus, the additions made during the period in a large state like Maharashtra have no visible abnormal trend,” the EC had said in its rebuttal of December last year.

With respect to the Congress’s request for electoral roll data, the EC said as per the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, every recognised political party is given two copies of the final electoral roll before an election free of cost. It added that the electoral roll was available for download on the CEO Maharashtra website as well.

Hours after Gandhi made the allegations in the Lok Sabha, when contacted, S Chockalingam, the Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra did not respond to the calls as he was on leave. A state election commission official, however, said that a report has already been submitted to the relevant authorities.

When contacted, Congress’s candidate from the Shirdi Assembly constituency Prabhavati Ghogare said the EC has not responded to the said complaint. “These students were registered merely based on a landmark of an area. We registered a complaint but no action has been taken,” she told The Indian Express. Ghogare said till Monday, she has received no response from the ECI on this specific complaint.

Maharashtra BJP leaders, meanwhile, slammed Gandhi. “What’s wrong with a rise in voter turnout? If more people cast their votes in our favour, why does the Opposition feel threatened? During the Lok Sabha elections, voters were left frustrated sparking anger as their names mysteriously went missing or had disappeared from the voter list,” said BJP minister and Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar. “To create disinterest in the country’s government machinery and systems is the agenda of urban Naxalites. Why are you playing the role of their spokesperson,” he asked.

Shiv Sena Parliamentary Party chairman and MP Shrikant Shinde said, “The baseless and desperate allegations by LoP Rahul Gandhi are nothing more than an attempt to undermine India’s democratic integrity — simply to mask his party’s repeated electoral failures.”

In the 2024 Assembly polls, senior BJP minister and former Congressman Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil defeated Congress’s Ghogare. Vikhe-Patil is now the Irrigation minister in Maharashtra government.