Rahul Gandhi’s allegations and the Election Commission’s response: Politics heats up again over Maharashtra elections

ECI refuted Rahul Gandhi’s false claims on Maharashtra polls with point-by-point rebuttal, presenting factual corrections. Read more on Dynamite News

New Delhi: Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has been continuously making allegations of rigging regarding the Maharashtra Assembly elections. However, even before this, the Election Commission has denied these allegations in detail. Despite this, on June 7, 2025, Rahul Gandhi once again alleged rigging in the elections and explained how the election process was allegedly rigged to benefit the BJP.

Rahul Gandhi shared an article, "Match-Fixing Maharashtra," published in an English newspaper on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and named it "How to steal elections?" He wrote that the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections were a well-planned conspiracy to harm democracy. He also claimed that the BJP will now adopt the same strategy in the Bihar elections as well.

Election Commission's strong reply

The Election Commission reacted strongly to Rahul Gandhi's latest allegations. The commission said, "Blaming the referee after losing the match has now become a new and futile trend." The Commission also clarified that the answers to these questions have already been given to the Congress Party on 24 December 2024, which is publicly available on the Commission's website.

The commission described Rahul Gandhi's allegations as completely baseless and tantamount to an insult to democracy and law. The Election Commission further said that such statements are not only institutional defamation but also a direct attack on the democratic structure of the country.

Commission's response on voting figures too

Rahul Gandhi had earlier alleged that it is impossible for 65 lakh votes to be cast in the last two hours of polling. Denying these claims, the Election Commission said that a total of more than 6.40 crore people cast their votes from 7 am to 6 pm on the day of the election; that is, an average of 58 lakh votes were cast every hour. In such a situation, it is completely possible for 1.16 crore votes to be cast in the last two hours.

Apart from this, the agents of the Congress party also did not complain of any kind of abnormality at the time of voting or after it.

Clarification on allegations of manipulation in voter list

On the allegation of adding fake names to the voter list, the commission said that this list is prepared as per the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Voter Registration Rules, 1960. The final list was submitted to all national and state-level parties before the Maharashtra elections. There were about 9.77 crore voters in the final list, in which only 89 appeals were filed at the district level and only one appeal was filed at the state level.

Booth-level monitoring and Congress' participation

The Election Commission said that more than 1 lakh booth-level officers and about 1.03 lakh party agents were involved in the voter list process, out of which 27,099 agents of Congress were also appointed. In such a situation, the Commission believes that the allegation of any kind of irregularity in this entire process is baseless and an insult to the rule of law.

Strong comment on the allegation of spreading misinformation

The commission also said that such misinformation is not only an insult to the law and the institution but also an insult to the thousands of party representatives and lakhs of election workers who honestly participate in the election process.

Objection to Rahul Gandhi's comment

The commission termed the questions raised by Rahul Gandhi on the impartiality of the Election Commission as "absurd" and "an attempt to defame the commission." The commission clarified that it has already responded with facts; despite this, repeating the same allegations again and again is only like lowering the level of politics.