New Delhi: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday levelled serious allegations against the Election Commission, accusing it of electoral irregularities and collusion with the BJP during the recent Lok Sabha elections, particularly in Maharashtra.
Speaking at a press conference, Gandhi claimed that the elections in Maharashtra were “rigged” and cited discrepancies between exit polls and final results. “Exit polls said one thing and the results were completely different. There are more than 40 lakh doubtful voters in Maharashtra. Why is the Election Commission protecting these people?” he asked.
He alleged that votes were cast in a “fraudulent manner” and questioned why the Commission was refusing to provide electronic voting data. “There is a clear collusion between the Election Commission and the BJP,” Gandhi said.
Raising concerns about the absence of anti-incumbency effects against the BJP, he said, “We had our doubts. Sometimes they use Ladli Behna, sometimes Pulwama, and now Sindoor… the opinion polls and the actual results don’t match.”
He further claimed that in Maharashtra, a suspiciously high number of new voters were added in just five months, and that a large volume of votes were reportedly cast after 5 pm.
“We raised these concerns with the Election Commission, but they refused to give us the digital voter list. Our team scrutinised documents for six months, and we now have evidence,” he added.
Citing Karnataka as another example, Gandhi said that according to Congress’s internal survey, the party was expected to win 16 seats but ended up with only 9. “In Bengaluru Central, the BJP won the seat with a large margin solely due to Mahadevapura Assembly segment. One lakh fake voters were created in this one seat alone,” he alleged.
The Election Commission has not yet responded to the fresh set of allegations.
