Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, raised concerns over the Maharashtra Assembly election results on Friday, questioning the Election Commission of India (ECI) about how 9.7 crore votes were cast, despite the state having an adult population of only 9.4 crore.
“We are not levelling any allegations against ECI. We only want the final voters list. It is your responsibility to ensure transparency. As per government data, the population eligible to vote in Maharashtra is 9.54 crore. However, 9.7 crore people exercised their franchise in the Assembly polls. How is that possible?” asked Rahul Gandhi.
He added: “32 lakh voters were added between the Assembly polls in 2019 and the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. Meanwhile, 39 lakh voters were added between the Lok Sabha polls in 2024 and the Assembly polls the same year. This was done in just five months. As the LOP, I spoke about this in Parliament, but the EC has not responded yet.”
In response to Rahul Gandhi’s statements, the Election Commission of India assured that it would provide a written explanation of all the facts he has requested.
“ECI considers political parties, as priority stakeholders, of course the voters being the prime & deeply values views, suggestions, questions coming from political parties. Commission would respond in writing with full factual &procedural matrix uniformly adopted across the country,” it said via a post on social media platform X.
Recently, Rahul Gandhi raised two allegations in Parliament regarding the Maharashtra elections. He claimed that 70 lakh voters were added to the state’s electoral rolls in just five months, between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Additionally, he alleged that 7,000 new voters were registered using the address of a single building in Shirdi.
On November 29, six days after the Maharashtra Assembly election results were declared, the Congress party wrote to the Election Commission and sent a delegation to raise concerns over what it described as a “shocking” 13% increase in the number of electors in the state since the Lok Sabha elections. The Congress requested the “raw data” for the 39 lakh new electors added to the electoral rolls.
“Thus, 26,46,608 young electors falling in the age group of 18-29 were added out of total addition of 40,81,229 electors during the period. This is a welcome trend of participation of youth, the future of our democracy. Thus, the additions made during the period in a large state like Maharashtra have no visible abnormal trend,” the EC had replied.
