In US, Rahul brings up voter list ‘discrepancy’ to target EC

“We asked them (EC) to give us the videography (webcasting, CCTV camera recordings), they changed the law so that you are not allowed to ask for the videography. It is clear that the Election Commission is compromised, and there is something very wrong with the system,” he said.

In January this year, the AICC Data Analytics Department Chairperson Praveen Chakravarty had claimed that 16 lakh more voters than the total adult population were enrolled in Maharashtra. “As per the Election Commission, the total enrolled electors in Maharashtra for the Vidhan Sabha election were 9.70 crore. That is, the EC seems to have enrolled 16 lakh more electors than the entire adult population in Maharashtra, as estimated by the Narendra Modi government,” Chakravarty had said.

Citing the report by the National Commission on Population, Ministry of Health, Chakravarty had said, “Maharashtra’s estimated adult population in 2024 can be calculated as 9.54 crore, based on the five-year projections.”

Responding to the allegations, a senior EC official had said: “The latest Census has not been conducted yet. How can you use population projection estimates and compare them to absolute voter numbers?”

Not just his party, even Gandhi had earlier alleged voter list discrepancy in Maharashtra. He had alleged that 70 lakh voters were added to Maharashtra’s electoral rolls in five months between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, and that 7,000 new voters were registered from the address of one building in Shirdi.

As per EC’s statistical reports, voters in Maharashtra increased from 8.86 crore in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to 8.98 crore in the Assembly elections that year. In 2024, the numbers increased from 9.30 crore in the Lok Sabha elections to 9.70 crore in the Assembly polls five months later.

Reacting to Gandhi’s remarks on the EC, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra accused the Congress leader of seeking to “defame the Election Commission of India in the US”.

“I want to ask him, the Jharkhand Assembly elections also happened then; did you enter into a compromise with the ECI then? …Priyanka (Gandhi) Vadra also won the polls during the bye-elections held during the same period… Was this because she, too, with Robert Vadra’s mediation, entered into a compromise with the Election Commission? Is that why she won, or was it because of her hard work?” he said.

He said it was ironic that Gandhi was in the US for three days to “defame Bharat” even as Vice President J D Vance was in India. “We should recall that the same thing was done by Rahul ji and all their leaders when the Commonwealth (Games in 2010) were on… Rahul ji calls the ECI compromised in the US, referring to the Maharashtra Assembly election results,” Patra said.