‘Vote theft’ vs ‘Baseless charges’: Rahul Gandhi, Devendra Fadnavis in war of words over Maharashtra Assembly results

“In Maharashtra CM’s own constituency, the voter list grew by 8% in just 5 months,” Gandhi said in a post on X. Some booths saw a 20-50 per cent surge in voters, he added. “BLOs reported unknown individuals casting votes. Media uncovered thousands of voters with no verified address. And the EC? Silent-or complicit. These aren’t isolated glitches. This is vote theft. The cover-up is the confession,” he said.

“That’s why we demand the immediate release of machine-readable digital voter rolls and CCTV footage,” Gandhi added, reiterating his demand.

In a sharp retort, Fadnavis said, “Wonder how long Rahul Gandhi will continue to make such baseless and wild charges? What Rahul Gandhi is doing is akin to firing aimlessly in the air. It is without substance. We understand that after the defeat in Maharashtra Assembly polls, your problems are multiplying daily. But for how long will you make baseless charges?”

“In Maharashtra, there are 25 such constituencies where voting increased by more than eight per cent. And in many of these constituencies, the Congress candidate won,” Fadnavis further pointed out.

He cited the example of the Nagpur West constituency, which is in the neighbourhood of the chief minister’s Nagpur South West constituency, where the polling increased by 7 per cent (27,065 voters). The candidate who won was senior Congress leader Vikas Thakre. Fadnavis also gave examples of Nagpur North (7 per cent increase) won by Congress leader Nitin Raut, Vadgaon-Sheri in Pune (10 per cent increase) won by Bapusaheb Pathare of NCP-SP, Mumbra-Kalwa (9 per cent increase) won by Jitendra Awhad of NCP-SP and Malad West (11 per cent increase) won by Aslam Sheikh of Congress.

Fadnavis claimed that Gandhi should have consulted his party leaders, as his message displayed a lack of communication within the Congress.

The chief electoral officer (CEO) of Maharashtra also reacted to Gandhi’s post, saying electoral rolls are prepared transparently and copies were shared with recognised parties. “During 2nd special summary revision-2024, which was taken up before the general elections to Maharashtra assembly 2024, the copies of draft and final electoral rolls of all 288 ACs were provided to representatives of all recognised political parties including INC,” a statement issued by the office of the Maharashtra CEO said.

“Between draft and final publication of rolls, 19,27,508 claims and objections were received for consideration. As per law, appeal can be filed against wrongful additions or deletions in the electoral rolls. Only 89 appeals were received,” the statement added.