Congress writes back to EC, sticks to stand, says: ‘Not helpful to deflect our requests’

The letter, accessed by The Indian Express, was sent to EC secretary Ashwani Kumar Mohal by the Congress’s eight-member EAGLE committee. The committee is meant to keep “a bird’s eye view” of elections in the country and “monitor the conduct of free and fair elections by the Election Commission of India”.

The letter says: “As you are well aware, since December 2024, through several letters, petitions, press conferences by leaders of the INDIA alliance bloc of political parties, articles and speeches on the floor of the Lok Sabha by the Hon. Leader of Opposition, we have put forth very factual issues concerning the sudden, huge increase in electors and voters for the 2024 Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha election and the inexplicable upsurge in polling after 5 pm on election day.”

It adds: “It is irrefutable from the EC’s own data that there were more new electors added between the Maharashtra 2024 Lok Sabha elections held in May and the Vidhan Sabha elections held in November than there were in the prior five full years between 2019 Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha elections and 2024 Lok Sabha elections. This has never happened before and defies basic common sense and logic. Who are these new voters and where did they emerge from?”

The party further says it was “intriguing and puzzling” that instead of providing the voter lists, the Election Commission has engaged in all other sorts of responses, media leaks, and calumny”. “Why don’t you just give us the final voter lists as requested? Since you have evaded this for so long, we must ask the logical follow-up question – do you or do you not have these voter lists? In this context, not providing video footage of polling day raises further doubts and suspicion.”

The letter says it is “neither helpful nor productive to deflect from our simple and straight-forward requests”, adding: “The Congress party leadership will be happy to meet with the EC soon after (their requests were met). In that meeting, we will even present the findings of our analysis to you.”

The Indian Express reported on Wednesday that on June 12, the EC wrote to Gandhi, inviting him to meet it to discuss any “issues”, while reiterating that the panel ensures that polls were held as per electoral laws.

Gandhi has been alleging irregularities in voter lists since the Maharashtra election results and, in an opinion piece in The Indian Express on June 7, raised questions about the electoral rolls, voter turnout data and the release of CCTV footage of polls.

In its letter, the EC said: “…similar issues were raised by the Indian National Congress (INC) after the Assembly elections in November 2024. The Commission had given a detailed reply to the INC on 24th December 2024…All elections are conducted by the Election Commission of India strictly as per electoral laws passed by Parliament, rules made therein and instructions issued by the ECI from time to time.”