ECI Invites Rahul Gandhi to Discuss Maharashtra Poll Irregularities
In response, the Chief Electoral Office in Maharashtra, in a post on X, said that as informed by the ECI, electoral rolls were shared with recognised political parties.
New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI), according to a letter that became available on Tuesday, has invited Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to discuss issues he had raised with regard to the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
In the letter dated June 12, the ECI said: “… if you still have any issues, you are welcome to write to us and the commission is also willing to meet you in person at a mutually convenient date and time to discuss all issues.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi against flagged alleged irregularities in the Maharashtra polls and claimed that there weren't isolated glitches but “vote theft” and demanded the immediate release of machine-readable digital voter rolls as well as CCTV footage.
He shared on his X handle, a media report which claimed that in six months between the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the Maharashtra polls, Nagpur South West, the seat held by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, had added 29,219 new voters.
“In Maharashtra CM's own constituency, the voter list grew by 8% in just 5 months. Some booths saw a 20-50% surge. BLOs reported unknown individuals casting votes,” Gandhi said in his post.
In response, the Chief Electoral Office in Maharashtra, in a post on X, said that as informed by the ECI, electoral rolls were shared with recognised political parties.
“Between draft and final publication of rolls, 19,27,508 claims & objections were received for consideration. As per law, appeal can be filed against wrongful additions or deletions in the Electoral Rolls. Only 89 Appeals were received,” it said.
In the letter that the ECI had formally written to Gandhi on June 12 on his allegations of rigging in the Maharashtra polls, the poll panel said all elections were strictly as per laws passed by Parliament and rules, and the entire exercise involved thousands of personnel, including booth-level agents appointed by political parties.
In a letter emailed to him on June 12 in response to his article written in a newspaper, the EC has said the election process is conducted in a decentralised manner at the Assembly constituency level, which involved more than 1,00,186 booth level officers (BLOs), 288 electoral registration officers (EROs), 139 general observers, 41 police observers, 71 expenditure observers and 288 returning officers (ROs) appointed by the commission.
“We presume that any issue regarding conduct of elections would have already been raised through election petitions filed in the competent court of law (high court) by the INC candidates,” it told the LoP in Lok Sabha.
“However, if you still have any issues, you are welcome to write to us and the Commission is also willing to meet you in person at a mutually convenient date and time to discuss all issues,” the poll authority said.
