ECI compromised, Rahul Gandhi says in US; BJP asks what about Priyanka’s LS win
BJP said it was ironic that when the US vice president was in India, Rahul Gandhi went to the US and disrespected India and its democracy.
New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is on a visit to the United States, has triggered a political row, stating that the Election Commission has been “compromised” in India and “something was very wrong” with the system, during his address to the Indian diaspora in Boston on Sunday.
The leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha alleged that voter turnout data was manipulated during the assembly elections in Maharashtra–a charge he has been emphasising since the announcement of the poll results.
Gandhi claimed that more people voted in the Maharashtra assembly elections than the number of adults in the state, who are eligible to vote.
Gandhi said: “The Election Commission gave us a voting figure for 5.30 pm that evening, and between 5.30 pm and 7.30 pm, 65 lakh voters voted. This is physically impossible. For a voter to vote, it takes approximately 3 minutes, and if you do the math, it would mean there were lines of voters until 2 am, but this did not happen. When we asked them for the videography, they not only refused but also changed the law, so that now we are not allowed to ask for the videography.”
EC has not responded to Gandhi’s Boston remarks so far.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reacted sharply. BJP spokesperson and member of Parliament (MP) Sambit Patra said that it was ironic that when the US vice president was in India, Rahul Gandhi went to the US and disrespected India and its democracy.
“This is a habit of the Congress Party… I want to ask Rahul Gandhi ji, the Jharkhand elections were also conducted then [in November]. Did you reach a compromise with the EC then? Did [Hemant] Soren reach a compromise with the EC? Priyanka Vadra won the MP by-election during the same time and entered Parliament using a Palestine [printed word] bag. Now, did she win the election by compromising with the EC or through her own hard work? When BJP won 240 seats, Congress announced that it was BJP’s loss and Congress’s victory—was the EC compromised then? Were you [Congress] compromised then?” Patra asked.
Patra further said that during the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra, the BJP won only nine seats while Congress won 13, and questioned whether the EC was compromised then as well. He added: “In the Lok Sabha, you celebrated our loss of the Ayodhya [Faizabad] seat–was the EC compromised then too? How is it possible otherwise? It is because there are free and fair elections held in India, and it has a thriving democracy. Rahul Gandhi should remember that he is out on bail of ₹50,000–he is guilty and corrupt–and yet he goes to a foreign land and attacks India.”
The Opposition has alleged voter fraud and manipulation on several occasions, including in West Bengal, and has flagged duplicate Elector Photo Identification Cards (EPICs).
On the other hand, the Election Commission initiated a series of measures—including three-level meetings with all political parties to resolve any issues. EC has also initiated training programs for Booth Level Agents, who are political parties’ representatives for each of more than 10 lakh polling booths in India.
EC announced that it would rectify the issue of “duplicate EPICs” —multiple electors with the same EPIC numbers, which the Commission described as discrepancies.
On this decision, the All India Congress Committee (AICC)’s Empowered Action Group of Leaders and Experts said in a statement: “...The Congress party welcomes a constructive solution with guardrails to not deny anyone the right to vote... It is a clear acknowledgement of the charge that the Congress party and the Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi have been making about the suspicious and dubious nature of our voter lists, as witnessed in the recent Maharashtra 2024 Vidhan Sabha elections. We continue to demand that the Election Commission make public the entire electoral photo rolls of the Maharashtra 2024 Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha elections.”
Officials of the Election Commission have told HT that over 90% of such EPIC discrepancies have been rectified so far.
