"70 Lakh Voters Added Suddenly": Rahul Gandhi's Maharashtra Results Charge

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Monday once again questioned the results of the Maharashtra assembly elections that were held last year, alleging discrepancies in the state's voter list, and demanded that the Election Commission (EC) provide data on the electoral roll to the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) for an analysis. 

Participating in the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President's Address in the Lok Sabha, the Rae Bareli MP alleged a massive addition of names on the voter list of Maharashtra for the November elections, just five months after the Lok Sabha polls were held. 

"I want to talk about the Maharashtra elections. The entire population of Himachal Pradesh was added to the voter rolls of Maharashtra. After the Lok Sabha elections, 70 lakh new voters suddenly arrived in Maharashtra ahead of the Vidhan Sabha polls," he said in the Lower House. 

The EC must provide data on the voter list to the Congress, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) for an analysis, he added, referring to his allies in the MVA.

There was no immediate comment from the EC on Mr Gandhi's remarks but in the past, it ruled out any arbitrary addition or deletion of voters from the state's list.

Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde dismissed Mr Gandhi's comments as "baseless". "These (remarks) are absolutely false and baseless claims. Every list was uploaded by the EC on their website," he told reporters. 

In the November 20 Maharashtra assembly elections, the MVA secured only 50 of the 288 assembly seats. The Shiv Sena (UBT) won 20, the Congress 16, and NCP(SP) 10. The remaining two seats went to Independents and one to AIMIM. The Mahayuti, comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), clinched 235 seats. The BJP won 132 seats, Shiv Sena 57, NCP 41 and others five.

Earlier too, Mr Gandhi had raised doubts over the credibility of the poll results. He said there is a "serious problem" with the country's election system and that the EC needs to ensure there is transparency in polls. 

He said "something wrong" had taken place in the polls, and said the Congress and the Opposition have been asking for the voter lists but the poll body has been refusing to provide. 

A Congress delegation had also met the EC and raised concerns over alleged inconsistencies in the electoral process. They alleged instances of arbitrary deletion of names from the voter list and consequent insertion of roughly 10,000 voters per constituency across Maharashtra.

In response, the EC said the Congress' claims were "factually incorrect and misleading".