New Delhi, June 7: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has officially responded to the article written in an English newspaper titled ‘Match Fixing Maharashtra’ by Leader of Opposition(LoP) in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.
In the article, Rahul Gandhi had alleged large-scale rigging in the Maharashtra Assembly elections in November 2024. The Election Commission has described it as beyond facts and defamatory.
The Election Commission said, “It is completely absurd to try to defame the Election Commission by saying (the match was fixed) after any adverse decision by the voters.”
Rahul had outlined the alleged electoral irregularities on five points in his article. These included issues like bias in the appointment of the Election Commissioner panel, adding names of fake voters, exaggerating the polling percentage, bogus voting at targeted booths and not providing CCTV records.
In response, the Commission said that more than 6.4 crore voters voted from 7 am to 6 pm. On an average, 58 lakh votes were cast every hour. 65 lakh votes cast in the last two hours is less than the normal average.
The Election Commission clarified that agents appointed by political parties were present at every booth. No one raised any doubts before the Returning Officer the next day.
According to the Commission, the process of preparing the voter list is done under the Representation of the People Act 1950 and the Electoral Rules 1960. The final voter list was given to all parties. Only 89 complaints were received against it, none of which were made by the Congress.
The Commission said that 97 thousand booth level officers and 1.03 lakh booth agents appointed by all parties were deployed at more than 1 lakh booths. Congress had also appointed more than 27 thousand agents.
The Commission said that elections are held transparently under the law and any kind of wrong information is not only an insult to the law but also demoralizes lakhs of people associated with the election process. The commission said that all these facts were sent to the Congress on December 24, 2024. Despite this, making such allegations repeatedly is completely inappropriate.