Rahul Gandhi claims "match-fixing" in Maharashtra polls; BJP counters barb
New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Saturday alleged that the 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections were a "blueprint for rigging democracy" and this "match-fixing" would next happen in Bihar and "anywhere the BJP is losing". Underscoring that match-fixed elections are a "poison" for any democracy, he said that the side that cheats may win the game, but it damages institutions and destroys public faith.
In a post on X, Gandhi outlined the alleged electoral irregularities in a stepwise manner — fake voters are added, voter turnout is inflated, bogus voting is facilitated, and evidence is subsequently hidden. "How to steal an election? Maharashtra assembly elections in 2024 were a blueprint for rigging democracy," Gandhi said while sharing an an op-ed published in The Indian Express. "My article shows how this happened, step by step: Step 1: Rig the panel for appointing the Election Commission. Step 2: Add fake voters to the roll. Step 3: Inflate voter turnout. Step 4: Target the bogus voting exactly where BJP needs to win. Step 5: Hide the evidence. "It's not hard to see why the BJP was so desperate in Maharashtra. But rigging is like match-fixing - the side that cheats might win the game, but damages institutions and destroys public faith in the result. All concerned Indians must see the evidence. Judge for themselves. Demand answers," Gandhi said. "Because the match-fixing of Maharashtra will come to Bihar next, and then anywhere the BJP is losing," the former Congress president claimed in his post.
In his article "Match-fixing Maharashtra", Gandhi said, "Voter rolls and CCTV footage are tools to be used to strengthen democracy, not ornaments to be locked up. The people of India have a right to be assured that no records have been or will be trashed." He said he doubted the fairness of Indian elections, "not every time, not everywhere, but often. I am not talking of small-scale cheating, but of industrial-scale rigging involving the capture of our national institutions". "But if some earlier election outcomes seemed odd, the outcome of the 2024 Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha elections is glaringly strange," he noted. In his article, Gandhi alleged voter turnout figures were inflated. "Election Commission data show that the number of registered voters in Maharashtra in the 2019 Vidhan Sabha elections was 8.98 crore, which rose five years later to 9.29 crore for the May 2024 Lok Sabha elections. But a mere five months later, by the November 2024 Vidhan Sabha elections, the number had leapt to 9.70 crore. A crawl of 31 lakh in five years, then a leap of 41 lakh in just five months. "So incredible was this leap that the registered voter total of 9.70 crore was even greater than the 9.54 crore adults in Maharashtra according to the government's own estimates," he said in his article.
Pointing to inflation in voter turnout on polling day, Gandhi pointed out that "the polling turnout at 5 PM was 58.22 per cent. Even after voting closed, however, turnout kept increasing more and more. The final turnout was reported only the next morning to be 66.05 percent." "The unprecedented 7.83 percentage point increase is equivalent to 76 lakh voters - much higher than previous Vidhan Sabha elections in Maharashtra". He also pointed to the adding of new voters in only 12,000 booths across 85 constituencies in the state, where the BJP eventually won.
Later, the BJP on Saturday accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of attacking democratic institutions to undermine people's trust in the electoral process, claiming he was doing so to pre-empt his party's defeat in the upcoming elections as he cannot garner public support. Hitting back, BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari accused the Congress leader of resorting to attacking democratic institutions under a well-planned conspiracy, as he knows that his party is set to suffer defeat in the upcoming Bihar Assembly polls. Gandhi is trying to undermine the trust of people in the electoral process because he is unable to gain public support in favour of his party, Bhandari charged, calling the Congress leader "anti-democracy".
"Rahul Gandhi knows he's losing Bihar and, like always, he's resorted to a well-planned conspiracy: attacking democratic institutions to pre-empt his defeat," the BJP spokesperson wrote on X, reacting to the Congress leader's charge. "Unable to win the trust of the people, he is now trying to undermine the trust of the people in the electoral process itself," he alleged, adding, "Rahul Gandhi is anti-democracy. Slamming Gandhi over his accusations, BJP IT department head Amit Malviya accused the Congress leader of deliberately making repeated attempts to sow seeds of doubt and dissension in the minds of the voters about the poll process. "It is not that Rahul Gandhi doesn't understand how the electoral process works. He does very well. But his goal is not clarity; it is chaos. His repeated attempts to sow seeds of doubt and dissension in the minds of voters about our institutional processes are deliberate," Malviya wrote on X.
The BJP leader pointed out that when Congress wins an election, be it in Telangana or Karnataka, the same system is hailed as "fair and just". "But when they lose -- from Haryana to Maharashtra -- the whining and conspiracy theories begin, without fail," he said, adding, "This is straight out of George Soros' playbook -- systematically erode people's faith in their own institutions, so they can be cracked open from within for political gains". "India's democracy is strong. Its institutions are resilient. And the Indian voter is wise. No amount of manipulation will change that," Malviya asserted.
Reacting to the Congress leader's charge, Bhandari said the voter increase between the Lok Sabha and assembly elections in Maharashtra was a regular administrative trend, not a conspiracy. Gandhi is "peddling a lie" to question a normal democratic process, he alleged. He termed Gandhi's claims "inconsistent and scripted", pointing out that the Congress leader on January 19 claimed one core fake voters were added, then he changed the figure to 70 lakh on February 3 and brought it down to 39 lakh on February 7. "Not even 1 per cent of Congress candidates formally raised complaints using Form 17C -- the legal way to challenge EVM data. If the Congress party truly believed the results were rigged, why didn't its candidates approach the District Magistrate with Form 17C data?" Bhandari asked "Because this isn't about evidence, it's about narrative warfare," he said.
