The Election Commission Of India (ECI) on Thursday reacted to the allegations by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi about the irregularities that had marred the Maharashtra Assembly Elections.
The EC said it would respond in writing and added that the commission deeply values views, suggestions, and questions that are raised by the political parties.
Political parties, as primary stakeholders, ECI certainly looks into views, suggestions, and questions coming from political parties with much value given to voters as prime. "Commission would respond in writing with full factual & procedural matrix uniformly adopted across the country," Election Commission stated on X.
Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused the Election Commission of "wrongdoing" in the Maharashtra Assembly elections and said that several anomalies have been spotted by the Opposition in the voter list.
At the press conference, Gandhi said that: "We represent on this table – the entire opposition which fought the last election in Maharashtra. We are going to bring some information regarding the election. We studied details – voters and the voting list. Our teams have been working, and we have found several irregularities".
"We need the voter list of the Lok Sabha election and Vidhan Sabha election to understand exactly who these new additional voters are. We also want to understand how so many voters were deleted and why voters from one booth were transferred to another – most of them were SC/ST voters," he added.
Gandhi said that the Election Commission had not responded to the request and the only reason behind this was their wrongdoing in the election process.
"The election commission has not responded. Now, the only reason they would not respond is that there is something wrong with what they have done. I am not making any accusations. I am presenting data here clearly," he said.
Gandhi had also listed some questions for the Commission in a post on X which read, “Why did EC add more voters in Maharashtra in 5 months than it did in 5 years? Why were there more registered voters in VS 2024 than the entire adult population of Maharashtra?"
Meanwhile, reacting to Gandhi’s allegations, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “Election Commission has categorically replied to all the questions. Rahul Gandhi is doing a cover fire as he knows that after the February 8, Delhi Election results, his party will be nowhere in Delhi and hence, what he will speak on that day, how he will create a new narrative, he is practicing for the same. If Rahul Gandhi does not introspect and will continue to console himself with lies – his party's revival isn't possible. Rahul Gandhi should introspect his defeat.
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