Rahul Gandhi voices concerns over Maharashtra polls results: ‘State’s adult population 9.54 crore… 9.7 crore voted. How is that possible?’

Gandhi made the remarks during a joint press conference in Delhi where he was accompanied by his allies — Shiva Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut and NCP(SP)’s Supriya Sule. “The nice way to say this is that the EC has lost control of the list. The bad way to say it is the EC has manipulated the list. What is very clear is that the list in Maharashtra has gone wrong,” he said.

Congress Rahul Gandhi speaks in a Joint Press Conference on Friday. (Source: Congress)

He said parties get a “decentralised list” of electors from the EC, but he wanted the “centralised, final list” for both Lok Sabha and state polls.

Posing questions to the EC, Gandhi said: “In five years – between Vidhan Sabha 2019 and Lok Sabha 2024, 32 lakh voters were added to the electoral rolls of Maharashtra. However, in a period of five months between Lok Sabha 2024 and Vidhan Sabha 2024, 39 lakh new voters were added in Maharashtra. The question is why are more voters being added in five months after the Lok Sabha elections than in five years prior. Who are these 39 lakh people?”

The second point Gandhi raised was that the number of voters was 9.7 crore, while the government data showed the adult population of Maharashtra was 9.54 crore. “Now this is an obvious anomaly,” said Gandhi.

Our questions to the Election Commission on the Maharashtra elections:

– Why did EC add more voters in Maharashtra in 5 months than it did in 5 years?

– Why were there more registered voters in VS 2024 than the entire adult population of Maharashtra?

– One example among many… pic.twitter.com/K7fOWdnXmV

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) February 7, 2025

While not mentioning the allegations, the EC posted on X, “ECI considers political parties as priority stakeholders, of course the voters being the prime & deeply values views, suggestions, questions coming from political parties. Commission would respond in writing with full factual & procedural matrix uniformly adopted across the country.”

As per EC’s statistical reports, the electors 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 number of electors increased from 9.30 crore in the Lok Sabha elections to 9.70 crore in the Assembly polls five months later.

Regarding Gandhi’s allegation that there were more electors in Maharashtra than the Health Ministry-projected adult population, a senior EC official said: “The latest Census has not been conducted yet. How can you use population projection estimates and compare them to absolute voter numbers?”