Repeating the Congress allegation of manipulation of voter lists in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, Rahul Gandhi said in Parliament Monday that 7,000 voters had been registered from “one building” in the Shirdi constituency, in a period of five months following the Lok Sabha polls last year. The district authorities told The Indian Express that the explanation was simple. The number was closer to 3,000, they said, and involved students residing in hostels of an educational institution in Loni town, which falls under the Shirdi seat. In their forms, the educational institution is the registered address, and hence the common address across students. "When we first received the complaint from a political party, we informed the Election Commission (EC) about the reality. The increase of voters from a centre in question was about 3,000 voters. There are educational institutions in the Loni area and the new voters are students from hostels of one of those institutions," Ahilyanagar District Collector Siddharam Salimath said. The verification process for these electors was thorough, he said, adding: "If a person is above 18 years of age, he or she can choose where to vote from with the necessary documents. Since the students are residing in hostels, the college admission papers are taken as residence proof.” The official said that before the electoral rolls were published, political parties had been called to submit objections or suggestions if any. "We also cross-checked whether there were any cases of voters being registered twice, and didn't find any," Salimath said. In the Assembly polls held in November last year, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil of the BJP had won from the Shirdi seat, defeating the Congress's Prabhavati Ghogre. A former Congress leader with Shirdi as his bastion, Vikhe-Patil quit the party to join the BJP in 2019, and is now Irrigation Minister in the Maharashtra government. During the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address in the Lok Sabha Monday, Gandhi talked about “threat” to constitutional institutions and went on to mention “the increase of 70 lakh voters” in the five months between the 2024 Lok Sabha and 2024 Assembly polls in Maharashtra. Gandhi then gave the specific example of the Shirdi Assembly constituency. “On the address of one building in Shirdi, about 7,000 new voters were added after the Lok Sabha polls," he said. Earlier, on November 29, six days after the Maharashtra Assembly election results were announced, the Congress had written to the EC and a delegation had also met the commission to raise what it called a “shocking” 13% increase in the number of voters in the state since the Lok Sabha polls held five months earlier. The Congress had sought “raw data” from the EC on the 39 lakh voters added to the rolls. In its response on December 24, the EC had said 48,81,620 voters had been added to electoral rolls and 8,00,391 deleted, leading to a net addition of 40,81,229 voters between the two elections. 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 the total addition of 40,81,229 electors during the period… Thus, the additions made during the period in a large state like Maharashtra have no visible abnormal trend,” the EC had said. Gandhi’s allegation about 7,000 voters being registered from one building address aligns with a complaint filed by the local Congress committee in August 2024, before the finalisation of the electoral roll. But, at that time, Pankaj Londhe, the president of the Rahata tehsil Congress committee, had complained about “bogus voters” being registered from “specific areas of Shirdi” and not one building address.
